Devin Ratheal

My paintings imagine my materialist experience as a transmogrification of my ancestors' religious worldviews; ordinary perception resting unsteadily on material flows that inherited symbolism only appears to contain. European religious imagery is a long negotiation with an unknowable otherness. My work makes space for the mystery calcified in those images and stories to wobble and breathe.

They represent an emergency. Inherited terror surfaces amdist a profusion of images no worldview can weather, and people unable to let that energy find a new expression are working to make the world an image of hell, so it can at least be recognized.

YouTube: Artist Talk at IA&A at Hillyer