To Grow, You Have to Look at Your Roots

by Larissa Hauck

Larissa Monique Hauck is a Canadian visual artist whose paintings move through luminous colour and surreal figuration to examine identity, perception, and the construction of the self within the queer feminine experience. Rooted in self-portraiture, her work considers what it means to be seen, and shaped, by a gaze that both desires and distorts. Central to her practice is an exploration of mental health and its invisible impacts, and how the act of self-imaging alters one’s sense of self over time. Her paintings hold the tension of being perceived as delicate while carrying an undercurrent of defiance, tracing the psychological cost of existing within systems that demand both visibility and compliance. Hauck’s work invites viewers to confront their own gaze: what they project onto feminine and queer bodies, what they consume, and what they attempt to silence. For those who do not conform, it offers recognition—asserting resilience within fragmentation, and power within contradiction.