Often walking between her studio in Chelsea and the ferry terminal, Strandell traces the evolution of Hudson Yards construction since its inception, which has lasted seven years so far. Similarly, she witnessed 56 Leonard—the tallest structure in Tribeca designed by Herzog & de Meuron—going through a ten-year construction with a four-year pause in-between. She finds construction sites reveal the complexity in a way that the finished buildings don’t; they embody a sense of growth and hope while simultaneously appear fragile and dissolving. 

“The descriptive, discursive nature of these works is less about the actual places I have rendered, and more about considerations of time and the theatre of change,” Strandell writes. Her depiction of the concrete skeletons in New York speaks to the volatility and prosperity that a metropolis simultaneously promises. In this pandemic era, her paintings coincide with the pictures of empty cityscapes filling news feeds. Yet with vibrant colors and solid strokes, they stimulate romantic and nostalgic reveries rather than apocalyptic visions.