Chris Barnard's "Full Spectrum" Dominance" exhibiting at Sam Lee Gallery in LA through March 13

Chis Banard: "Dogfight", 2007, Oil on canvas

LA-based visual artist Chris Barnard's series of paintings, "Full Spectrum Dominance," is on exhibition at the Sam Lee Gallery in LA's Chinatown.

Chris Barnard’s Full Spectrum Dominance — a subversive reference to the strategic United States military doctrine "Joint Vision 2020" – features large-scale, oil on canvases that examine connections between landscape painting and contemporary socio-political concerns.

Challenging this US military dogma, which calls for total armed supremacy in space, sea, land, air and information, Barnard’s work critiques the country’s ongoing ideology for power and military expansion by focusing on ideas of authority, imperialism, and environmental degradation.

Barnard's brilliantly conceived and executed work reflects both the emotional and actual landscapes embroiled in this sad, anti-democratic, violent, destructive, apocalyptic worldview conceived by neo-con ideologues.

The gallery describes Barnard’s most recent painting " Pile Going Critical (Source of Friction: Humans):"

Here, an ominous piece, measuring 54-by-64 inches, showcases a series of dark strips of horizontal blocks and a few bands of colorful paints, all of which become increasingly drippy towards the top of the canvas.

Seen from a distance, this work resembles an apocalyptic infernal (its form referencing the world’s first nuclear reactor built for the Manhattan Project), foreshadowing a world where existence can be annihilated by a human-made smoldering mound of blackness.