The Anatomy Lesson series marks a shift in medium while holding the line on intent. Heather Straka trades paint for large‑format photographs created with a seasoned fashion team, yet the hallmarks remain: immaculate surfaces, measured colour, and composed, cinematic poise. Photography has long underpinned her practice; since 2004 she has staged carefully lit sessions with meticulously groomed models for her paintings. Here that engine moves to the foreground with younger, mostly Japanese sitters—each posed with a cigarette—so the cool control of her painterly language reads with photographic clarity.

At the centre is a contemporary riff on Rembrandt’s 1632 The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, informed by Straka’s time in the University of Otago dissecting room during her 2008 Frances Hodgkins Fellowship. A pale, androgynous “body” on a gurney is encircled by uniformed observers, sharpening questions about looking and being looked at, the roles of artist and model, and how images assign meaning. Nearby, a row of red‑uniformed portraits—near‑identical in format against Straka’s signature greenish‑grey ground—invites close reading of small shifts in gaze, brow, head tilt, and cigarette hold. The effect is quietly dramatic: desire held in check, discretion edging into mystery, restraint carrying the charge.