About

Bella Guynes (b. 2003 U.S.) is a contemporary painter whose practice examines the paradoxes of desire and their relationship to power, ritual, and femininity. Working through figurative and mythic imagery, her paintings investigate cycles of pursuit, consumption, sacrifice, and self-construction, situating desire as both a generative and disciplinary force.

Working primarily in oil, Guynes constructs psychologically charged scenes informed by myth, art history, and personal narrative. Animals, bodies, and domestic objects recur throughout her work; hounds, rabbits, cakes, and female figures function as symbolic agents of longing, obedience, abundance, and excess. These motifs operate as metaphors through which desire is aestheticized, rehearsed, and internalized.

Her practice is rooted in strong draftsmanship and engages contemporary veins of figurative painting, employing lush color, controlled composition, and deliberate staging to create images that oscillate between intimacy and unease. Through this tension, the work invites viewers to confront the social and cultural structures that shape how desire is performed and contained.

She lives and works internationally.