Constructing of the Self, Marisa Andropolis, 2021, oil on canvassed wood, 9.5 x 7.25 x 7.25 in. / 24.13 x 18.41 x 18.41 cm.

Faces in the Threshold: The Art of Marisa Andropolis

December 9, 2025 Gavin Coates

Featured image: Constructing of the Self, Marisa Andropolis, 2021, oil on canvassed wood, 9.5 x 7.25 x 7.25 in. / 24.13 x 18.41 x 18.41 cm.

Marisa Andropolis delivers portraits charged with emotion, mythology, and psychological tension.

Marisa Andropolis blends realism with surreal symbolism, creating psychologically charged portraits that explore identity, emotion, and the unseen forces shaping human experience.

Across acrylic, oil, and colored pencil, her figures inhabit liminal spaces, caught between innocence and danger, identity and distortion, fantasy and the rawness of lived experience. These three works highlight her ability to fuse hyperreal detail with surreal symbolism, creating images that feel both intimate and uncanny.

Explore our curated selection of contemporary artists from around the globe.

Naturalist Gallery offers artist representation internationally. Apply your art.

Close Encounters of the Blue Kind, Marisa Andropolis, 2022, acrylic on canvas board, 16 x 12 in. / 40.64 x 30.48 cm.

In Close Encounters of the Blue Kind, Andropolis transforms a childhood moment into a scene shimmering with mystery. The child’s face is rendered with tender precision, soft curls, flushed cheeks, the quiet seriousness of deep thought, contrasted against a fantastical UFO casting a blue beam from the night sky. The juxtaposition creates a narrative where wonder meets anxiety: the innocence of childhood confronted by an otherworldly unknown. The lighting is crucial here, the cool blue highlights on the skin and hair merge the figure with the surreal backdrop, blurring the line between imagination and visitation.

Emotional Turmoil, Marisa Andropolis, 2025, oil on canvas board, 10 x 8 in. / 25.4 x 20.32 cm.

Emotional Turmoil presents a more mature psychological landscape. The subject, bathed in deep blues, golds, and violets, turns away from the viewer while thin golden cords wrap around her eyes. The cords, simultaneously delicate and restrictive, symbolize the tension between perception, control, and constraint. Floating shapes, a skull-shaped key, and eclipsing circles introduce esoteric symbolism: cycles, mortality, and the possibility of unlocking the self. The result is a portrait of inner conflict, where vibrant color fields emphasize both emotional heat and spiritual dissonance.

We Could Die By It, Marisa Andropolis, 2012, colored pencil on paper, 12 x 24 in. / 30.48 x 60.96 cm.

In We Could Die By It, Andropolis merges realism with noir-style seduction and danger. The woman’s pose, part defiant, part vulnerable, paired with stark green lighting and fishnet textures, evokes a cinematic tension. A cigarette dangles between her lips, a symbol of ritual, rebellion, and self-harm entwined. Colored pencil brings an almost photographic smoothness to the figure’s skin yet preserves the tactile rawness of hand-drawn shadow. The title underscores the narrative: desire, thrill, and the risks we willingly court.

Viewed together, these artworks reveal Andropolis’s exploration of psychological thresholds, moments where the familiar becomes strange, where identity fractures, and where emotion intensifies into myth. Whether she paints a child under a mysterious sky, a woman bound by symbolic cords, or a figure flirting with danger, her work consistently investigates the layered stories behind the human face. Each portrait becomes a mirror held to uncertainty, urging viewers to confront the unknown within themselves.

Learn more About Naturalist Gallery of Contemporary Art.