Miwa Ogasawara’s work as a painter has developed above all within familiar genres such as portraiture, interiors, and landscape. But in her work, these traditional forms give rise to something autonomous and new. Ogasawara’s paintings look easy, almost offhand, yet they are densely atmospheric. Her pictures cultivate a quiet, at times severe clarity that can seem ominous and suggests emotional depth, as when the artist foregrounds moments of intimacy or loneliness. Such valences of expression are a crucial factor in her work—never does her expressiveness become explicit or illustrative. Ogasawara