Artist: Paul Rutz

Oil and gold leaf on carved plywood: 63” x 27” x 5”

“Apollo, god of light, balance and art, is usually pictured as a blond white dude. But my lifting partner, a gorgeous black man, is the epitome of Apollonic—calm, centered, unflappable—and he’s an artist. If Apollo is light, we glimpse him here through a curtain, saving our eyes from the god’s full power. “