Exhibiting at the SZ Gallery until Tuesday, November 2, the Kosta Kulundzic is a French artist of Serbian ancestry, born in Paris in 1972. The grandson of an orthodox pope, he was nurtured by the specters of religious warfare, Christian dogma, and the burdens of martyrdom. Immersed in the narratives of the gospels, he populates them with his own heroes: Judith and Saint George are updated for Michael Bay's explosive set pieces, slaying dragons and falling to blades and assassins under a blazing Waikiki sun...tourists get caught in the crossfire. With a fastidious attention to detail ("when I paint, I love to stick my nose to the canvas," he says) he renders light, flesh, and spiritual struggle with intensity and passion. In each of his canvasses he invites us to consider the battle between forgiveness and guilt, sin and grace, linking these ancient stories to the exaggerated and stylized violence of modern cinema and graphic novels.

Starting with a blank white sheet, Kosta Kulundzic put ink to paper...