Come Closer II

Aliya Abs’s new series of 19 paintings offers a deeply personal meditation on love in its many forms—tender, painful, comforting, and complex. Through intimate compositions and emotive brushwork, she explores the emotional spectrum of connection, including same-sex love portrayed with quiet dignity and ease, as well as moments of longing, solitude, and contradiction.While rooted in her own experiences, the work resonates with a broader emotional truth. Abs allows each painting to carry the imprint of a year marked by intense feeling, transforming personal vulnerability into shared reflection. The love depicted here is not solely her own—it becomes universal, inviting viewers to recognize themselves within it. In Ab's Own Words:"This series includes 19 paintings and it feels very personal to me.I explore love in all its different forms — love that comforts, but also love that hurts or confuses.Some pieces show same-sex love — quiet, tender, and simply natural.Others speak of longing, lo