In this painting, a classically-painted figure wearing only a towel cautiously looks behind a billowing drape with his bright red hand. Behind him stands a theatrical image of a highway cutting across a green field, and the stage beneath his feet is also painted like a highway.

The artist's ongoing series “Double Illusions" is based on philosopher Slavoj Žižek’s notion that illusion is the true dimension of social activity. His oil paintings translate psychic structures such as nostalgia and neurosis into classically-painted illusionistic spaces via dramatic color and lighting motifs. It's a series that offers multiple meanings via philosophical, literary, and art-historical interpretations.

John Denniston II uses oil paint to improvise within modes of traditional realism. By abstracting chaotic scenes drawn from classical formulas, he offers a novel and surrealistic direction for historical painting practices. By manipulating linear perspective and color temperature, Denniston heightens the sense of discord in his narratives, which become critical takes on postindustrial society.