Emma Pryde on the Aesthetics of Innocence

The female figures in Emma Pryde’s paintings—on view in her exhibition “Counterplayer” at King’s Leap in New York through June 13—look like crossovers between angels and aliens. They have greenish skin; spindly fingers; small chins; and, sometimes, broad wings. “Counterplayer” comprises seven 20-by-16-inch paintings (all 2021) hung in a row along three walls. On the floor in the center of the gallery sits a small sculpture: a resin lamb with a swor