The paintings and installations of Cornelia Baltes straddle the divide between abstraction and figuration. Her pictures are inspired by observations of mundane details – apparel, body parts, or facial expressions – that she pares down to simple lines and shapes. She often interrogates the painted pictures's function, by painting on the wall beyond the canvas, by hanging a picture in the middle of the room as an object in its own right or laying it our on the floor.