The Intimate Drawings of Katarina Riesing

Katarina Riesing’s hand-drawn works possess an uncanny ability to be both intensely intimate and subtly restrained. Her mastery of colored pencil and lithographic techniques transforms skin into a mesmerizing surface, layered with suggestion and ambiguity. Each piece—Crotch Shot (2019), Dissection (for Lee) (2024), and Eden (2024)—invites viewers into fragmented moments of bodily presence, where perspective shifts and details become the focal point.

Crotch Shot is direct yet enigmatic, capturing a glimpse of the body in a way that is both sensual and impersonal. The meticulous rendering in colored pencil creates a hyper-realistic softness, making fabric, folds, and flesh nearly tangible. In Dissection (for Lee), Riesing presents a collage-like arrangement of drawn body parts, mimicking torn photographs strewn across a surface. This work plays with ideas of memory and examination, where the body is studied in fragments rather than as a whole. Eden, a lithograph with hand-drawn elements, offers a dreamlike vision of the body, its title evoking temptation, vulnerability, and reverence.

Riesing’s approach to the figure is both seductive and analytical. Her focus on skin, fabric, and the interplay of textures turns each drawing into a meditation on the body as both an object and an intimate space. By zooming in on cropped sections, she invites viewers to reimagine familiar forms, transforming everyday gestures into something strangely hypnotic. Her ability to translate these details by hand is a testament to her skill, making her work both deeply personal and universally compelling.