LOS ANGELES, CA (March 6, 2023) – SoLA Contemporary is pleased to announce the first exhibition of our 2023 season, Kintsugi: Healing Our Broken Pieces, the debut solo of California painter, Christen Austin. This dazzling and deeply moving  exhibition is a year-and-a-half in the making. In 2021, Austin’s paintings The Black Woman’s Burden, At Arm’s Length, and Smiles and Blues, earned her the winning title at FRESH, SoLA’s open call biennial then juried by Anuradha Vikram. Kintsugi presents thirteen new paintings. Exploring the other side of trauma and tragedy, Austin’s vivid figurative paintings encourage the healing of wounds and the mending of broken pieces in a symbolic, yet strikingly visual way. Austin’s depictions of self-care, mutuality, spirituality, intimacy, and connection to art and nature reveal healing to be more than a simple or contained act. Rather, the healing journey is depicted as a capacious and ongoing process – a way of being in everyday life and in relation to others.