Nikki Maloof’s portraits of imagined animals and humans explore the potential of paint and figuration to convey emotions. Although her work is figurative, the Brooklyn-based artist’s practice is more process-driven as she coaxes her paint to find the exact moment where color, line, and gesture cohere as an expression of psychic or emotional energy. A tropical, colorful setting suffuses many of her paintings, creating a warm palette and feeling for her emotional avatars. In her other works, she returns to historical paintings, such as those by Courbet, reinventing figures from realist, historical, or allegorical scenes to home in on specific emotions or interior lives, often projecting what their lives would be in a contemporary milieu.