Rissa Papillion is a contemporary figurative painter based in New York City, working primarily in oil.

Her work focuses on the human figure, often set within interior or studio spaces. Painted in oil on linen and canvas, her figurative and portrait paintings explore posture, gesture, and the quiet psychological charge of the figure at rest.

Papillion’s practice is grounded in observation and sustained looking. Painting from life, her work emphasizes the relationship between the human form and its surrounding space—how bodies occupy rooms, how light settles, and how stillness can carry emotional weight. While rooted in representation, the work resists narrative clarity in favor of ambiguity, inviting viewers into a slower, more contemplative mode of looking.

Papillion is a member of the Art Students League of New York. Her paintings are held in private collections in the United States and Europe. She works from her studio in Long Island City.