The Daily Orange is a nonprofit newsroom that receives no funding from Syracuse University. Consider donating today to support our mission.

The trailer for Tim Atseff’s exhibition opens with the message “When you see something, say something. I saw enough, I painted something.”

In response to President Donald Trump’s time in office, he did paint something — an entire exhibit.

Atseff’s exhibition, “The Seven Deadly Sins – A Trump Dystopian Hepatology,” opens today at the ArtRage gallery in Syracuse and will run until Oct. 4. Social distancing guidelines will be in place, and visitors must reserve a time since capacity is limited. There is also a virtual exhibition for viewers who don’t feel comfortable going to the gallery in person.

“When I get an itch, I have to scratch it. It makes me feel alive,” Atseff said in his artist statement. “The darker the work, the more alive I feel. Donald Trump is my itch. For the last three years, I have felt like I’ve had a bad case of poison ivy.”

Atseff’s professional career began in journalism as a writer and a political cartoonist. The majority of his artwork has been in existentialism. This project felt like pushing the two together, he said.

Atseff’s golden toilet is meant to represent the United State’s Senate after they decided to not impeach President Trump. Sarah Lee | Asst. Photo Editor

The exhibition consists of seven paintings, one for gluttony, greed, lust, sloth, wrath, vanity and envy. These paintings show the ways in which Atseff feels Trump embodies those sins, he said. In all the pieces, Trump is portrayed as a half-pig, half-human creature with a forked tongue.

“They are humorous, and they’re grotesque,” said Kimberley McCoy, the community engagement organizer at ArtRage. “He captures both.”

McCoy said she appreciated the details of Atseff’s pieces, like the emoji stickers he uses throughout the collection. Atseff also used shredded 20 dollar bills for Trump’s hair in the greed painting.

Atseff uses patriotic imagery and colors throughout his pieces, as well as police line caution tape as a common symbol throughout the collection.

There are several distressed American flags used throughout Atseff’s collection, but he pointed out that they were worn and weathered when he used them for his piece. He did not cut or rip them himself.

The “Vanity” painting shows Donald Trump as a half-pig half-human creature looking at himself in a mirror. Sarah Lee | Asst. Photo Editor

“I am patriotic. It just depends on what you’re patriotic about,” Atseff said. “I’m patriotic about our basic rights.”

The paintings are all named according to which sin they represent, but the explanation beneath them is a quote from Trump that directly ties to the particular sin.

“I’m not so much angered by his policies as I am with him as a human being,” Atseff said. “Politics are politics, but he is a bad person, and that’s where the seven deadly sins come in.”

Atseff came up with the concept for this exhibition in 2018 and has previously displayed it at the Center for Contemporary Political Art in Washington, D.C. in 2019. The exhibition was meant to be in April, but has been pushed back due to the pandemic. This will be ArtRage’s first in-person exhibition since March.

Rose Viviano, director of ArtRage, said she’s excited to showcase Atseff’s work and have people back in the gallery.

The exhibition also features additional political artwork Atseff has done, including work from his past work as a political cartoonist with various Syracuse newspapers and a gold toilet that represents the U.S. Senate. Atseff was inspired to do that piece after the Senate’s decision not to impeach Trump.

“For three years I’ve felt like I’ve been assaulted every day, and democracy’s been assaulted every day,” Atseff said. “It’s sort of a therapy.”

Published on September 2, 2020 at 9:48 pm

Contact Violet: velazaru@syr.edu