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From September 6 until October 26, 2019, award-winning artist, author, and curator Chris Semtner will present Cabinet of Curiosities, a selection of his recent paintings evoking mystery and magic, at anne's Visual Art Studio gallery at 208 West Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia. A cabinet of curiosities was a room in which well-traveled gentlemen of the Renaissance displayed objects, books, and art reflecting their wide range of interests from history and archeology to nature and astronomy, so this exhibit will present densely layered images that merge the artist’s interests in 19th century literature, Victorian mourning customs, pseudoscience, natural history, silent horror films, and cats. As such, the gallery, itself, will become Semtner’s cabinet of curiosities. Fans of Semtner’s Rembrandt-esque paintings of haunted Victorian interiors populated by ethereal figures and delicately rendered insects can expect to see more of his usual darkly imaginative vision, but, this time, he will present some of his most complex and richly layered paintings to date. 

Chris Semtner is an internationally exhibited fine artist whose paintings have entered numerous public collections including the Virginia Historical Society, the City of Baltimore, and the University of Maryland.  Semtner has written several books and chapters on topics including Poe, visual art, and cryptography in addition to contributing articles to Biography.com, Resources for American Literary Studies, Crime Writers’ Chronicle, and The Edgar Allan Poe Review. He has curated critically acclaimed exhibits for museums and galleries across the country with his Library of Virginia exhibit Poe: Man, Myth, or Monster earning the praise of The New York Times. His exhibits for the Poe Museum have brought that institution awards and honors from TIME Magazine, USA Today, and several others. Semtner has collaborated on performances with groups including the Latin Ballet of Virginia, the Friends of Shockoe Hill Cemetery, and Engaging History Productions. Semtner has appeared on BBC4, PBS, Travel Channel, Military History, NPR, CNN, ITV, and other networks. He regularly speaks about a variety of unusual, obscure, and macabre subjects to groups of all ages around the country and as far away as Japan. His most recent book, “The Poe Shrine: Building the World’s Finest Edgar Allan Poe Collection,” tells the strange but true stories behind the Poe Museum’s artifacts.

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