In her work, Cwynar examines the aesthetics, decisions, and photographic representations behind a wide range of consumer products, including aftershave bottles, pink bunny rabbit banks, and designer clothing. By resizing, reshaping, and combining images of these objects, the artist creates dense and overstimulating collages that reveal the role advertising has in manipulating ideas of self and the world. “In all my work, I wanted to have this very familiar object that’s always the wrong size and is always in the wrong relationship to the things around it as a kind of metaphor,” says Cwynar. “It’s about how difficult it is to figure out what’s true, or important, or how big something is in this era where you’re constantly presented with images.” In her Tracy (2014-present) series, Cwynar overlays images of her friend and collaborator Tracy Ma with historical and contemporary images of women, luxury brand labels, and perfume bottles. In other works, such as Alphabet (Index) (2025), the artist attempts to represent a shared cultural moment in time, reference a similar project of Aby Warburg called Mnemosyne Atlas (1925-2929), Drawing from her own Google search terms, algorithmically suggested search terms, and the most popular search terms from 2020 to 2025, Cwynar created 26 panels of collaged imagery, each representing a suite of search terms in alphabetical order. The artist alternates between simple terms such as Apple or Eye, and more abstract ideas such as Disinformation or Knowledge. In both projects, the artist considers the power that photographs exert on our values, desires, bodies, and worldviews while calling attention to the subjectivity and bias inherent to the medium. 

In addition to working with photography, the artist uses film to further articulate decisions about color, space, and design that inform societal beauty standards and capitalist consumer habits. In her film Baby Blue Benzo (2024), the artist uses a scrolling horizontal animation style, akin to social media platforms, to depict a collection of found and original imagery. The film centers around a replica of the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, the most expensive car sold at auction, and expands to discuss the role of colors such as Baby Blue and Ferrari Red in influencing certain decisions and accepted values. “Photography has always had this relationship to design and capitalism where it makes the things that get made seem desirable,” Cwynar says. “I became obsessed with how photography creates the desire that needs to exist in order for something like a 140 million dollar car to be made.” In other works, such as Cover Girl (2018), the artist investigates the role of colors such as Cover Girl Pink in reinventing concepts of beauty and authenticity. Through her films, photography, and collage, Cwynar explores the current overstimulating culture of imagery and the role that photography plays in impacting larger consumer habits and beauty standards.