Reality is far richer than the narrow version our minds allow us to perceive. We move through the world sensing only a sliver of what is actually present before us, while other species register entirely different spectrums of light, energy, and sensation. Marina Kappos seeks to pierce this veil of perception, presenting a more transcendental and cosmic view of life in her paintings, believing that what appears stable or singular may instead be fluid, multiplied, and entangled across different times.

Piercing the Veil draws inspiration from walks through Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris during an extended stay in the city. The site’s numerous sculptures of mourning women standing watch over tombs fascinated Kappos, with their solemn beauty, sense of purpose, and quiet strength. She began seeing grief not only as loss, but as a space where remembrance, transformation, and interconnection coexist. These widows become central figures in her new paintings, as veiled spectral forms that emerge and dissolve into one another, appearing not as fixed presences but as echoes or psychic doubles, suspended between worlds.

Kappos’ work also draws on her lifelong fascination with the experience of being an identical twin. This sense of deep interconnectedness informs the artist’s understanding of perception as something fluid, unstable, and shared across unseen dimensions. Rather than offering direct answers about what exists beyond consciousness, the paintings linger in the tension of the unknown. Boundaries between realities feel momentarily thin and permeable, and recurring keyhole-like forms and mirrored figures suggest portals into altered states of awareness and awakening.

Marina Kappos (b. 1972) received an MFA from Yale University, School of Art in 1997 (New Haven, CT) and a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1995 (Valencia, CA). She has exhibited extensively, including solo shows at SHRINE (New York, NY), The Pit (Palm Springs, CA), Lighthouse Works (Fishers Island, NY), China Art Objects (Los Angeles, CA), I-20 Gallery (New York, NY), and Tokyo Wonder Site, Institute of Contemporary Art (Tokyo, Japan). Kappos recently participated in the Arts Connected Residency in Göcek, Turkey, and the Retina Residence Artistique in Paris, France.