Cristina Starr is an artist with a powerful vision. Her oeuvre is rooted in portraiture and realism, yet her portraits are imbued with existential narratives and otherworldly imagery. She is currently exhibiting Pink Sun in Unmanifested at Glena Studio in London, a group exhibition featuring artists who investigate and peel back concealed layers of the invisible on the brink of externalisation.
‘Pink Sun’ depicts a figure holding what appears to be a baby swaddled in a blanket. Yet first impressions are deceptive, and instead of an infant’s face, there is a rectangular red shape reminiscent of a screen. A dramatic palette of vermillion red and Emerald green recalls a horror movie, red signifying danger and green indicating something sinister. Starr’s dystopian vision is perhaps a clarion call that humanity is veering towards a future of conflict dominated by technology and lacking compassion. Starr’s depiction of a babe in arms as a computer screen recalls Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian Sci-Fi novel Klara and the Sun, a futuristic vision of a world where we rely on AI for friendship. A world not too far from reality.
Cristina Starr, ‘Pink Sun’ Detail Oil and Acrylic
Starr has an innate ability to create mood, drama and atmosphere through portraiture. Her expressionist brushstrokes combined with a bold use of colour result in evocative paintings filled with mysterious narratives. Elements of Surrealism and Symbolism fill her canvases, and she uses symbols and signs to tell a story, in a manner similar to Frida Kahlo or Dorothea Tanning. By translating the intangible into something tangible, she questions the divide between fantasy and reality, between dream worlds and dystopian futures.
Cristina Starr received academic training at globally respected institutions, including Brown, NYE, and Goldsmiths, where she studied Religious Studies, Social Work, and Fine Art. Her art is rooted in an examination of the human psyche and is rich in intellectual and psychological nuance. Her skill as a fine artist, combined with her education in social work and religious studies, informs her Symbolist style and exploration of society and its direction.
She also brings elements of nature into her work, often including birds, flowers and trees as metaphors and symbols of emotional states. Starr’s art delves into something primal and existential. She invites us to question the human psyche and creates allegories of contemporary life and visions of the future. Starr is on the rise, a rising star on the global art scene.
Starr has exhibited in London, Brighton, Edinburgh and beyond. Her work will also be featured in Exi 26 – an exhibition of existentialism-themed works curated by Evelyn J Marshall – at the Crypt Gallery in London from 4th February 2026.
Unmanifested is at Glena Studio from 23rd January to 6th February, 2026.