“Flowers, so pathetic in their beauty, frail as the clouds, and in their coloring as gorgeous as the heavens, have, through thousands of years, been the heritage of children.”

—Thomas de Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater

Emily Sundblad’s pipe dreams throw us onto the coastline of the adolescent sublime – heeding the siren call of seashells, butterflies, and courtesans. Her pretty-in-pink paintings are shrouded by the moody and tenuous dilemma of youth — torn between inward depth and outward demands, recalling the angst of Munch’s Adolescence, the introspection of Degas’ Girl by the Sea, and the hazy, effeminate dreams of preteen wallpaper.

The Adolescent Ocean, Sundblad’s second show at Bortolami in New York, features a new body of brazenly lush paintings. A plein air panorama coated in sand captures a purpling ocean sky. Entangled branches and dripping seashells are set against citrus tones sprinkled with pixie dust. A basketball player dunks into a spiderweb beneath a vibrant Knicks logo. Crocodiles, turtles, and dragons give the sense of a child’s storybook, recalling Sundblad’s accordion edition of The Jungle Book.

Text by Felix Bernstein