Over the weekend, I got to visit Ania Hobson in her cozy London studio. It’d been an eternity since I’d smelt the strong but radiant scent of drying paint—my nose burning as I was stunned by the slight headrush on arrival.

This fall, SETAREH X in Düsseldorf, Germany has opened I See You, a solo show of new works from the now London-based Hobson. The gallery notes that "Hobson’s paintings enable the recognition of something close but distant, familiar but unknown, plausible but delusive." That is what draws the viewer closer, a sense of knowing but almost as if you are watcing a world just appear in front of you.

Ania Hobson's women often look like they don't want to be in the spaces they find themselves in: ready to leave the party, staring at wine to avoid a conversation, planning an Irish goodbye. Her characters are dressed cool and distinct in their clothes, expressions and pose.