Five Churches in a Strip Mall on Pasadena Avenue is delighted to present LADIES PAINTED, with works by
Gwyneth Bulawksy, Pui Tiffany Chow, Alex Colombino and Nancy Jones.
Pui Tiffany Chow’s Feminine Folly (2026) is a re-rendering of Francisco de Goya’s Disparate Femenino. The Disparates
are a series of satirical prints produced in the early 19th century that categorize expressions of absurd behavior and
Chow’s interest is in Goya’s identification of the feminine as one such category. The original print shows a group of
women playing blanket toss, their figures leaning in a way that implies they might be moving in a circle, or swaying back
and forth. In her version, Chow fragments and layers this scene with geometric shapes and moments of stylized figuration.
The effect is spookier than the original: If Goya was hinting at a sense of wyrd sisterhood in the gathering of these
women, Chow in turn amplifies this notion to playfully call him out on it.
The themes of communion and potentiality are mirrored in Nancy Jones’s watercolor Vortex (2019). It depicts people
sitting in a chair circle during a group therapy session, all their faces turned towards one person who appears to be
speaking. The composition is bare, space is mostly abstract and instead inferred through the appearance of shadows.
Jones’s brushwork traces the circle’s outline, suggesting a portal, or a cauldron: a representation of how group dynamics
can take on a life of their own. Her use of perspective amplifies the sensation of movement and emergence.
Kiss (2019) shows a similar situation, but the introduction of a poster (or, did a hatch in the wall suddenly slide open?)
with the faces of the members of glam rock band Kiss implies a threshold may have already been crossed.
Across the room, Alex Colombino and Gwyneth Bulawsky’s paintings are similarly concerned with cinematography.
Colombino’s La Notte and Clawfoot (both 2025) are based on stills from the 1961 movie La Notte by Michelangelo
Antonioni. The paintings depict three protagonists who find themselves caught in a romantic triangle. In La Notte, an
over-the shoulder perspective presents a woman and a man whose features are mostly absorbed by shadows – confined by
the painting’s small frame, Colombino allows his generous brushstrokes to confuse spatial legibility. We see the man’s
half profile from behind, the woman might as well be looking straight at the viewer. Her facial expression mirrors the
ambiguity of the scene. Clawfoot shows a lone woman peeking sideways out of a bathtub. The painting’s expressive
coloration and wavy rendering of the protagonist’s features stand in stark contrast to the original text.
Gwyneth Bulawsky borrows from the aesthetics of art styles popular during fascist regimes in Europe to reflect upon her
own lived trans experience and family history. Her painting Later on she’ll dream about the nuclear apocalypse and wake
up wondering if she still has to make payments on her Capital One credit card, 2026 is a play of opposing forces.
Bulawsky depicts a woman sitting on the floor by a mirror, naked except for an open feather skirt and headdress. The
painting’s perspective feels isometric, the subject vulnerable and energetic; her heightened emotional state betrays
defiance. As a self-portrait, it is both idealized and cynical – it foregrounds a notion of the transgender woman as a
performer and commodity, a tug-of-war between voluntary and involuntary objectification.
Gwyneth Bulawsky is from the BayArea. She is currently an MFA candidate at the University of California in Irvine and
holds a BA from UCLA. Her paintings examine the representation of transgender women in the context of art history.
Gwyneth’s work has been shown at Good Mother Gallery Los Angeles, (2024); Gattopardo, Los Angeles (2023); and
Durden and Ray, Los Angeles (2022).
Pui Tiffany Chow (b. Hong Kong) immigrated to the United States after the Handover from the British government and
now lives and works in Los Angeles. Her paintings and drawings examine the female form and the capacity for the canvas
to stage it. Drawing on pointed art-historical references, exploring the intersection of abstraction and figuration, she
interrogates painting traditions in both subject and form, weaving Eastern and Western cultural codes into a pastiche of
different tempos, feelings and approaches. Pui Tiffany Chow is an Assistant Professor of Art at Pomona College,
Claremont, California. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include LOOK | | REVEL at College of Creative Studies at
UC Santa Barbara (2025); Susanna (solo) at Phase Gallery, Los Angeles (2024); Hurly-Burly (solo) at Parker Gallery, Los
Angeles (2022); 2 Bad Mouse at After Hours Gallery, Los Angeles (2022); Bend at Phase Gallery, Los Angeles (2022).
Alex Colombino (b. 1989 in Providence, RI) is a painter who lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He received his BA in
Media Studies from the University of San Francisco, with an emphasis on filmmaking and cultural analytics.
Nancy Jones is an artist whose work explores how images shape perception, presence, and the texture of reality. Grounded
in media philosophy and cultural observation, her practice moves across media through questions of return, immersion,
and contemporary experience. She has exhibited internationally and holds an MFA and a PhD in Media Philosophy and
Communication.