Kottie Paloma’s new body of drawings continues an ongoing exploration of fractured
realities, cultural archetypes, and the absurdities embedded in contemporary life.
Rendered in pencil on paper, these drawings serve as both intimate confessions and
brutal social commentaries. Titles like The Fall of Liberty, Cult Leader, and Shit Theme
point to a deliberate tension between satire and sincerity—a recurring theme in his
practice.
There’s a visual rawness to these works that echoes the psychological charge of his
large-scale acrylic on canvas paintings. Like his paintings, this series of works is
anchored in conscious, calculated storytelling. Each drawing emerges from a process that
is at once intuitive and referential, reaching into dreams, news cycles, apocalyptic
mythologies, and his lexicon. Figures appear in turmoil or transition: priests, farmers,
gatekeepers, beasts. These recurring characters function as metaphors for power,
vulnerability, and the rituals we rely on to make sense of chaos.
By using a deceptively simple medium—pencil on paper—Paloma can strip away artifice
and focus the viewer's attention on gesture, symbolism, and narrative dissonance.
There’s a sense of dark humor throughout this series, but it’s never divorced from
empathy. These drawings ask: What are we clinging to when the structures around us
begin to crumble?
Ultimately, this series is about survival, not just physical, but emotional and ideological.
It’s about holding space for contradiction, absurdity, and unexpected beauty in a world
that feels increasingly surreal.