“I often avoid using the terms ‘figuration’ and ‘abstraction,’” the British artist Cecily Brown has said, “because I’ve always tried to have it both ways.” Brown paints what is almost there. Fleshy pinks, muddy browns, deep reds, and electric blues swirl across the canvas to form nearly discernible shapes—a leg, an arm, a crowd emerging from within the paint. Her work is often seen through the prism of Abstract Expressionism, and she’s been compared to Willem de Kooning. For this exhibition, Brown has created new work inspired by Kensington Gardens, where the Serpentine Gallery is located, drawing on her early memories of British landscapes, fairy tales, and children’s-book illustrations. A selection of earlier paintings, dating back to 2001, rounds out the show. —Elena Clavarino