John Stark paints moments of grandeur within a world almost recognizable from art history, mythology, or the science fiction bookstand. The sky glows apocalyptically and strange figures engage in unknown rituals. Nabokov has argued that we would have to call Shakespeare’s The Tempest science fiction if we were rigorous with our definitions. In that spirit, Stark approaches contemporary fantasy images by way of the Northern Renaissance, and his uncanny earnestness saves the paintings from mere parody.