S wiss-born painter Olivier Zappelli’s canvases are striking; as the intensity of their colors and figures subsides, compositional and thematic complexity begins to emerge. He arranges figures painted in clashing colors and styles, and creates impressions of three-dimensional space that are bent and broken the moment they are established. His works momentarily let us admire their boldness and wonder. Detached contemplation is short-lived, however: Zappelli’s works invite us to explore the interactions between their disparate elements and the infinite meanings located therein. Zappelli works in the Magical Realism style, but borrows from other sources, including influences from his travels. The desert and cloud-scapes that often serve as his backdrops evoke Surrealism (particularly Dali and Magritte), as do his most fantastic figures. These humanoids have certain realistic features and proportions, combined with mythic iconography and variously incongruous animal appendages. Other elements in his canvases bear the influence of advertising imagery, Pop Art and comic book art. The voodoo iconography Zappelli encountered in Haiti appears in his work, as does the style of Indian wall painting that he practiced for two years.