Aggression and struggles for power abound in the vivid paintings of Ángela Ferrari. The Argentinian artist is keen to explore the limits and consequences of control through scenes rife with antagonism: dogs nip at each other, horses buck and bare their teeth, and birds lie lifeless. Evoking hunting paintings and masculine displays of pride for a kill, Ferrari’s works consider the relationship between predator and prey.

In her most recent body of work, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, the artist extends her proclivity for teasing out the tension between life and death. There are tiny works with looser brushstrokes that zero in on singular moments of tension, while a spate of large pieces magnify several tussles with vivid details.

Paintings like “Aurora” stretch nearly 12 feet wide and present a diverse group of fowl with various dispositions, all against a stunning mottled sky. Some creatures appear on the verge of an inevitable battle, while others have already succumbed or go about their lives seemingly unaffected.

Sharing a partial title with the 2024 painting “Aurora IX,” this expansive piece similarly brings together themes of decay and vitality through flowers and vibrant feathers falling to the earth after being plucked. Sensual fabrics and grand spaces complement Ferrari’s rich color palette in several works and cement her self-described “grotesque-passionate baroque” style.

Whereas earlier paintings are set indoors, the pieces in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? are fully in the wild. This exhibition—which shares a title with the 1969 Sydney Pollack film—brings violence and suffering front and center, a stark contrast to its presence in the background or underfoot in historical genre paintings of hunts. In doing so, Ferrari highlights a ruthless nature in which vying for domination always begets drama. Rather than dismiss such displays of hostility as inevitable, she prompts an urgent investigation into what caused such a commotion in the first place.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? is on view through December 14 at Povos in Chicago. Find more of Ferrari’s work on Instagram.