Moll Brau’s paintings address the feminine and the grotesque, the loss of connection to the things we consume, and how the things we consume relate to the body, specifically the female body. Brau’s paintings deal with her interior struggles: the oppression of conventional gender roles, the shame of breaking free from those norms, and the guilt associated.

Brau’s recent paintings are a collision of the real and imagined and a masterful balance of abstraction and figuration. Meticulously drafted bodies, with their muscles painterly and tactile, contrast with passages of unencumbered color and line. Carefully observed details ground scenes rooted in memory, fantasy, and nightmare. As she processes the dissolution of her previous marriage and the beginnings of new love, the image and reality of gender norms, as well as the strengths and limitations of the human body, Brau creates tableaux that combine wit, anguish, beauty, and rage.