LONDON artist Katrine Roberts is exhibiting abstract representations of the human face at the Norman Rea Gallery, Derwent College, University of York, from Monday.

In her show, The Settlers, bold, lurid colours confront the viewer, yet the portraits hold a quiet melancholia that unravels over time as emotions permeate through the faces.

“The initial innocence of which the paintings seem to embody becomes subverted,” says Katrine.

“Using toxic-coloured paint, I disfigure traditional portraiture through a process of application and removal. This is led by a fascination with corrupting and fusing the boundaries of what a face is expected to be.”

The face is the point at which we communicate and respond to our surroundings and to ourselves, she suggests.

“Skin acts as a porous barrier or dividing line between ourselves and the world,” says Katrine. “It is both sturdy and unstable “I’m interested in both physical and metaphysical boundaries; through both skin and paint there’s a physical representation of the invisible interactions which occur during human communication.”

Katrine completed a BA Honours degree in 2011 and was included in The Catlin Guide 2012, which highlights 40 of Britain’s most promising graduate artists.

Her work has been exhibited across London and internationally in Space K Galleries across South Korea.

“Katrine Roberts’s exhibition provides a very dramatic opening to our spring programme of exhibitions,” says gallery director Mayssa Kachicho.

Monday’s opening runs from 7pm to 9pm when, free wine will be served. The exhibition will be on view until January 26, open from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, under the guidance of curator Martha Cattell, a student in the departments of History of Art and History.