{moszoomthumb imgid=1064 itemid=74 style_m=2}solo show at Three Graces questions meaning

Uniformed schoolgirls with cat masks appear to be forcing other delicate, Asian girls to eat ramen noodles at gunpoint. They’ve apparently already shot one girl who hangs in tree branches where a buzzard sits.

The title of this drawing, “The Zombies Aren’t Solely Responsible For This Mess or How Raymon Became More Valuable Than Gold,” does little to help make sense of it. The confusion doesn’t result from a lack of foresight on the part of the artist, but just the opposite. It’s an intentional effort by Nicole Maloof.

Her recent drawings are in an exhibit called “Love Letters to Kafka” at Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth during the month of June. This is Maloof’s first solo show, but her work has been at the gallery before. These drawings, which are larger, stranger and more complex than her previous ones, were made in the spirit of Franz Kafka’s literary works.

Much of Kafka’s writing could fall under existentialism, a philosophy that focuses on the individual in a precarious state of trying to make sense of an inherently meaningless world. Likewise, Maloof’s drawings are purposefully absurd, and yet they compel people to ask questions and attempt to find the answers.

She creates a nightmarish and fantastical world that seems to lack coherency. Strange relationships are forged, creating humorous but unnerving images that the viewer is left to decipher. “These implied narratives are aimed at inducing an investigation of their meaning, a process reflective of our own search for meaning in the absurd and potentially godless world that we reside in,” Maloof says in her artist’s statement.

Her characters, which are often a variation of the same Asian girl, along with anthropomorphized creatures, interact in a stage-like setting, though insufficient information is available to piece a full story together. Born in South Korea, Maloof said she not only relates to the girls she draws, but also duplicates them to suggest a myth.

The ink drawings are colored in and shaded with acrylic paint on bright white paper, which conveys a vast emptiness outside of the scene and keeps the focus on the individuals. Maloof draws meticulously in fine lines, a style that almost contradicts the lurid subject matter in the same way her female lead characters do. A noose and noodles make the same page in one drawing; Frankenstein and Dracula are both in another, yet there’s an alluring feminine touch in all of them. After all, these are adoring love letters, not cries for help.

While Maloof eventually came to Kafka, her inspiration started with the book “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami, who was influenced by Kafka. This book set in motion a long attempt to capture a similar world, but communicate it in images, Maloof says.

The drawings have narrative possibilities like book illustrations, but only show one, convoluted scene. “You don’t have an ending. You don’t have a beginning. All you have is this instant,” she says. “But people constantly try to attach meaning to it.”

Her goal, she says, is to make the drawings meaningless regardless of attempts to explain them. The theory is that, even if the world has no meaning, it can be found through the individual who sees it.

Three Graces is located at 105 Market St., Portsmouth, 603-436-1988.