In paintings which harken back to the glorious heyday of History Painting, Bo Bartlett's seem both anachronistic and nostalgic at the same time. Classically drawn nudes appear in tableaux with figures in bright orange safety overalls, weirdly setting Bartlett's silent dramas in the past and the present. Under low horizons and thick blue-gray skies, Bartlett's figures frequently make eye contact with the viewer, momentarily transforming the sense of painting-as-illusion to a confrontation between art and audience in which the innocent bystander is cast as a participant in the pictorial drama. At such moments, the figures are like characters begging for a narrative while making history out of the moment in which they stand frozen before us. Mr. Bartlett studied at the Philadelphia College of Art (now The University of the Arts) and the University of Pennsylvania, and received a certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Awards include the Packard Prize, the Toppan Prize, the Cecelia Beaux Memorial Prize, the Thouron Prize, and the Eleanor S. Gray Prize, among others. His work has been exhibited broadly nationally, including Daniel Saxon in Los Angeles, PPOW in New York, and the More Gallery and Locks Gallery in Philadelphia. His work is included in the collections of Walter Annenberg, Richard Thornburgh, Fidelity Bank, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Greenville County Museum, and LaSalle University Art Museum.