The ambiguous nature of Tomma Abts’s paintings questions traditional distinctions between abstraction and representation. In her works paint is thickly applied in places, creating ridge-like reliefs which at times she emphasises with trompe l’oeil shadow. Through over-painting and illusion she reverses the early Modernist aim of making the painting process more apparent. Abts’s forms often begin to take on figurative qualities. In Noeme (2004), the interlocking linear elements suggest planets or their halos.