John Guy Petruzzi uses watercolor and acrylics on synthetic paper for his vivid explorations on ecological disaster. The vibrant pops across these scenes from the natural world may be intriguing, but they tell a story far more ugly. As fellow painters Lauren Marx and Tiffany Bozic explore the dire consequences of our actions in meditations on life and death, Petruzzi also adds to this conversation a clashing and blending of textures and materials.
“My work parallels our ideas of rarity between the evolution of species, the creation of art, and the advancement of technology,” the artist said in a past statement. “Within the context of an ongoing Holocene mass extinction, I examine the meaning of these values through a ‘symbology’ informed by natural history, digital media, and field experience in nature.”
The artist recently took part in Antler Gallery’s “Unnatural Histories VI,” a continuation of a series on the very topics these painters tackle.
In the simplest terms, San Francisco-based painter 
Yuji Moriguchi's creature-filled paintings play with the sensibilities and tropes of manga and Ukiyo-e. Elsewhere in the artist’s work, he pulls on the thread of erotic art that has coursed through Japanese comic history. His recent work seems to take on a decidedly mystical tone.
Using stills from early propaganda films or frontier paintings as a basis, the layered paintings of