Artist Caroline Troncossi is hoping to ruffle some conservative Bermudian feathers at the opening of her joint show with Alicia Wanklyn 'All About Eve' this evening at Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation's Elliot Gallery.

Miss Troncossi has produced ten paintings, all figure-based with nude females and males depicted in varying positions.

She focused her work around Eve, of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve.

Eve famously tempted Adam to eat the apple, which led to man's expulsion from the Garden of Eden. In the artist's interpretation, Eve's intent is the first sin. With this in mind, she made the female the temptress.

"Some of the paintings are about being the seducer, while others about being the seduced," she said. "I have explored voyeurism on both ends."

One of her paintings, 'Sunday Roast', is based on a poem she wrote drawing parallels between meat and the human body.

"In England, this is the main meal of the week. Families gather for it, money and time is spent on it, and the nutrition and enjoyment of the food is supposed to last the week," Miss Troncossi said. "It is a double play with subject matter as to compare a human to meat is degrading, yet to the Sunday Roast is a prestigious meal!"

This exhibition marks a new direction for the artist, as her prior abstract seascapes, were based on feeding the softer side of our emotions while these works are more sexual than sensual.

Miss Troncossi said: "The voice in the art is louder and has an aggressive edge.

"The subject matter is embarrassing for some and honest for others. It is a release every time I finish a session of painting these pictures.

"Yes, they are raw and I'm sure confrontational to a degree, but I feel free saying what I want to say. That is one of the beauties of art – you get to discuss in your work what's on your mind!

"In the end, it is just your opinions put into whatever medium of expression you choose. I feel honesty combined with skill is one of the vital keys to making art that works. Fakers always fail!"

Moving toward using the figure as opposed to her minimalist colour schemes was an idea the artist had been mulling for a few years. "I began training in New York for teaching Pilates in 2002," she said. "This training consisted of observing the movement of bodies. You had to actually learn to read movement. Through those observations came analysis of how to move each body."

The structure of the Pilates exercises is specific, she said.

"It was amazing for me to go through this intense atmosphere of physical activity with my figure drawing background from Parsons College of Art and Design in New York and Central Saint Martin's College of Art in London, because I had to, not just watch the whole body, but watch how it moved through space."

She continued: "Combining the two to make it work took a while to come about. The subject matter came about because I grew up Catholic and went to a convent. As well, I think I grew up knowing a lot of Eves."

One of her favourite aspects about art is that it conjures up emotion.

"Whether it is a book or poem you read, or a movie you watch, a sculpture sitting there, or a painting on a wall it is about feeling," she said.

"You are transported somewhere that you relate or react to.

"I've made this body of work partly because of the element of shock as Bermuda society generally steers too much towards the conservative side."

Miss Troncossi challenges people to "rattle" their safety cages and come to the Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation to have a look.

She said on an Island where people mistrust their politicians and racial tensions revolve around stereotypes people should re-examine their preconceptions and prejudices.

"Maybe you'll go home smiling," she said.