Complexity of Becoming by Theresa Zingg

My work explores the layered nature of identity — the visible self and the internal landscapes that exist beneath it. Through both figurative and non-objective abstract painting, I investigate emotion, memory, and the tension between structure and spontaneity.

In my figurative pieces, faces emerge from fields of color, fragmented text, gestural marks, and intuitive line work. These figures are not portraits of specific individuals, but psychological spaces — reflections of shared inner experiences. I’m drawn to the coexistence of control and chaos: the precision of a gaze against the unpredictability of drips, erasures, and layered textures. Scribbled symbols and urban mark-making function like thoughts — overlapping, interrupted, rewritten — echoing the complexity of becoming.

Alongside my figurative work, my non-objective abstracts remove the anchor of the human form entirely. In these pieces, emotion is carried purely through movement, color, rhythm, and spatial tension. Without representation, the viewer is invited into a more intuitive encounter — one that feels atmospheric, immersive, and open to interpretation. These works often explore energy, subconscious memory, and the unseen forces that shape perception.

Color plays a central emotional role throughout my practice. Saturated pinks, teals, ochres, and deep shadows create environments that feel both intimate and expansive. Each painting becomes a conversation between instinct and intention, fragmentation and wholeness, vulnerability and strength.

Whether through the human figure or through abstraction alone, my work invites viewers to look beyond the surface — to consider identity as fluid, layered, and continuously evolving.