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My work explores the dark side of the history of painting. Some of the most beautiful paintings in history were created as propaganda to promote religious and political ideologies. I am interested in how the aesthetics of beauty and power have been used to influence the narrative of history.

I appropriate visual elements from different historical periods and ideological viewpoints to create a dialog about the origins of our beliefs and the conflicts that arise from them.

This series of work combines the scientific and environmental worldviews with the aesthetics of ancient religious art. I am illustrating a link between archaic beliefs and modern thinking. For instance, Science and Christianity share an utopian/apocalyptic dichotomy. In American mainstream culture, environmentalism has adopted a decidedly apocalyptic belief that the end of the world will be brought about by our own hubris. Like Christianity, there is a sense of doom and deliverance associated with our actions in the world. We h

Anthony Riggs

art@anthonyriggs.com