Painted directly onto stretched linen, Flaying The Lamb contrasts the natural rough weave of the canvas with Kahraman’s highly polished painting technique, the juxtaposition between the real sumptuous fabric and the painted dresses heightening the spatial illusion. Though using a limited palette and simplified planar compositions, Kahraman achieves a tremendous amount of depth in her work through the intensity of her colours and veneers of layered patterning. Kahraman delivers this with effortless fluency: the whites of the lamb dazzle with the lustre of inlaid pearl and the black masses of hair expand like giant inky spills, replicating antiquity’s luxuriance.