German artist Tomma Abts is known for making detailed free-handed abstract oil paintings that create shadows and dimensionality with illusionistic qualities. Her work examines the fundamental elements of painting and the contrast between static images and the potential for movement. Abts creates art within predetermined parameters but rarely has preliminary ideas about the final composition of a work before starting. Adding layers of paint, Abts intuitively builds and rebuilds the composition, focusing on the process of finding and creating a composition. Once finished, Abts names her works after first names common to the German region; these names complement the abstract qualities of the paintings, with no reference to gender.

–Molly Megan, from the Glenstone Field Guide