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The site has been more than two years in the making and represents the hard work and dedication of many individuals. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone involved—especially Alexandra Simpson and Liz Morlock, whose tireless efforts were essential in bringing this project to life. Simply put, the site would not exist without them. I am also grateful to our development team at Therefore Interactive for transforming our vision into reality.

For thirty-three years, New American Paintings has existed as a print publication. Throughout that time, we have faced many challenges, none more persistent than adapting to the ever-changing landscape of technology. Candidly, I have not always adapted as quickly as I should have. This new website represents an opportunity to embrace that change and firmly position New American Paintings in the digital age. Our primary goal remains the same: to provide featured artists with the strongest possible platform for visibility and long-term success. With that in mind, the new site offers a range of tools designed to connect artists with a global audience, including a digital edition of the magazine and customizable artist pages that allow for deeper engagement with readers. This is only the beginning. In the coming year, we plan to introduce additional features, including the ability for artists to sell their work directly through the platform.

This issue was juried by Claire Howard, Hansjörg Wyss Curator of Modern Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It was a pleasure to work with…

It’s a dangerous time to be a woman in the United States. A few examples: reproductive freedom is slipping away, the government covers up the predatory behavior of powerful men toward young women and girls, and transwomen, especially Black transwomen, face heightened rates of violence. Against this backdrop, many of the artists in this MFA issue of New American Paintings address the state of girl- and womanhood today, from the historical roots of gendered power dynamics to the contemporary iconography of gender performance. In wide ranging material and stylistic vocabularies, their paintings highlight the sustaining roles of intersectionality and interpersonal relationships, and the possibility of resistance to an essentializing or objectifying gaze.

Where did messages about gender roles and expectations of femininity originate, and how do they look today? Sara Yourist places 18th- and 19th-century figurines in unlikely settings, revealing the cracks in the supposed civility of this historical decor. These shifts of place foreground narratives of dominance encoded in the porcelain objects, which picture men in control of nature and of women. In A Spark of Unrequited Lust, a figurine depicts a woman gazing up at a man in a powdered wig, who appears to have her in a headlock, brutality disguised by a pastel palette. Shaina Kasztelan gathers more recent popular imagery of girlhood—Disney princess sheets, music-box ballerinas, barrettes—in frothy pink mixed-media assemblages. Look closer at works such as My Lips Could Tell A Lie But My Heart Would Know, and you will discover monstrous faces…