Sasha Gordon Is on the 2026 TIME100 Next - Time Magazine

Every human must contend with the constraints of the body; inside each one a sea of feeling and conflicting identities are sealed. Painter Sasha Gordon reckons with these depths and contradictions by conjuring realms where all facets of being can exist, unguarded and exposed. At 28, she’s had multiple solo exhibitions in major cities—including the captivating “Haze” in New York City in fall 2025—earning acclaim for her mesmerizing figures that are gloriously alive and engaged even when in nightmarish play. Gordon is determined to surface elements of self that society seeks to repress. It makes being in the presence of her work feel like a relief.

Gordon’s portraits feature serene characters that simmer with undertones of violence, rupture, and self-reckoning: two soft-bodied women in a wooden boat in a placid pond, the glowing patch of one of their scalps plucked clean. Pointy crescents of fingernail clippings placed on the tip of a curious tongue. A head held underwater, still as stone, eyes laced with urgency. This is her immense power; to unsettle us from a contained, palatable existence, and embolden us to be in companionship with our shadow selves.