During the early 1980s, Richard Bosman made a series of dramatic works that harness the spectacle and fervor of sensationalist crime photography and pulp fiction cover art. Later in his career, he moved away from manmade drama, instead depicting figures amid erupting volcanoes, ebbing tides, and crashing waves. Adversaries combines these influences in a style, reminiscent of German Expressionism, that conveys passion and mystical depth. Here, we see a shirtless man at a campsite who awoke in the middle of the night to the presence of a sizable bear. However, instead of fleeing the scene, he stands against the animal. This encounter plays on the common theme of man versus nature.

Label from Menagerie: Animals on View, March 11–June 4, 2017