Resisting emotional and narrative escalation, Atherton paints gestures that hover between intimacy and withdrawal. Cropped and held in suspension, these moments; grips, kisses, twists, folds, remain unresolved.

The act of painting fixes what is inherently fluid. Held too long, these positions would begin to ache, yet here they are sustained indefinitely, caught between tension and stillness.

Atherton is drawn to small reminders of presence: everyday intimacies that are visually slight and mighty in abundance. There is expansion to be found in the simple. Though the conditions of an artist’s life may suggest scarcity, her way of seeing renders it otherwise.