Through her paintings, Celeste Rapone invokes the willing suspension of disbelief and the engagement of suspicion aligned along particular interests or ideas communicated to us by the characters she portrays. Initially conceived as coping mechanisms for a future as a failed painter, Rapone’s portraits now tap into consequences of exposure: humiliation, vulnerability, self-doubt and self-deprivation. Her autobiographical characters –most often women–are proxiesto her discomfort felt at new ideas and approaches, thedoubt in her own representation and object-making, her inability to mediate attentiononce exposedto it, and the abstract possibilities opened up and emphasized by these failures.