"Christina Forrer: Parker Gallery" by Claudia Ross

Christina Forrer often cites “The Turnip Princess,” a German fairy tale, as the inspiration for her figurative tapestries, drawings, watercolors, and wallpaper (a new foray). The story stars a bachelor prince who finds a wife by following the instructions of a talking bear, who is later revealed to be his lost father. The prince places a sharp nail “under a turnip,” magically turning a local old woman young again—and thus into a suitable bride. The enchanted world of “The Turnip Princess,” like those of many folktales,is bait, coaxing young listeners into topsy-turvy landscapes that can reinforce restrictive social norms. Along the way, though, these stories often invoke stranger, more expansive life-forms and events that haunt the conventions they ultimately aim to impose. 

Forrer’s self-titled solo exhibition at Parker Gallery included just five tapestries and two works on paper, but this neat array managed to probe the instabilities of such storytelling traditions, with the artist employing her signature childlike styling to reveal the eerie, gothic underbellies of supposedly serene domestic scenes. Whether through human/animal hybrids or distorted interiors, Forrer’s artworks yield mind-bending pictorial spaces equally shaped by both intimacy and estrangement. 

Read full article at artforum.com or in the December 2025 issue.