In Juliette Sturlèse’s most recent series completed in 2023, A little mouse was running through the grass, the artist’s playful layering of colour and meaning finds a new material outlet: astroturf, discovered in a bin near her studio. The spongy, bristly texture of this synthetic slice of nature is somehow reminiscent of public hair; thrown into the matrix of the canvas’s other inhabitants, the plasticky interloper is both a cheeky and sensual feminine presence.

In the sunny expanse of Pelouse au soleil, the fake grass hovers above a sapphire blue rectangle like a peninsula or boomerang; meanwhile, manifesting in the mash-mash landscaping of Jardin, chaise et coccinelle, the turf appears to hover between blue and green islands, facing off against a Francophilic blob bedecked with red-and-white stripes.

A small, light pink orb—which Sturlèse affectionately terms as her own presence in each painting—hovers alongside a magenta swatch, as if watching the bigger shapes hash things out on the lawn.