New York based artist Laurie Simmon’s exhibition “How We See,” currently on view at the Jewish Museum, explores notions of beauty and identity in the age of technology in social media.

The exhibition features a series of portraits of models, including South-Sudanese beauty Ajak Deng.

The new works in Laurie Simmons: How We See draw upon the “Doll Girls” subculture, women who alter themselves to look like Barbie, baby dolls, and Japanese Anime characters through make-up, dress, and even cosmetic surgery. Simmons’ images call to mind high school portraits, featuring fashion models posed in front of a curtained backdrop, cropped from the shoulders up. Prismatic lighting and small, surprising details in the models’ clothing lends these otherwise banal images a psychedelic effect, which is exaggerated by each girl’s preternaturally large, sparkling eyes. They stare out at the viewer with an uncanny, alien gaze, created by lavishly painting eyes onto the models’ closed eyelids—a technique drawn from the “Doll Girls” community.