Serious Topics is delighted to present VANESSA CONTE: SWELL, an exhibition of twenty-four TINY paintings that tell a circular narrative about Amy, a fictional character from the artist's nautical comic AMY: THRILL TO LIVE. In the paintings, Amy's flesh—supple, voluptuous, uncontrollable, bountiful—is subjected to domination. Stretched, squashed, tied, beaten, her body transgresses impossible female beauty standards while being manipulated and played with. She's drawn like a rubber-doll who can bend without breaking—cartoon physics meets oil paint's materiality.