Seattle artist Jethaniel Peterka brings formal painting training as well as urban environments and experiences to canvas in his new show at Fulcrum Gallery, “Losses and Longings.”

According to Peterka’s artist biography, he has been creating art since a very young age, and was heavily influenced by many genres and styles. His first drawing was made at 3 years old and was of a fetal figure in an egg sac. His parents encouraged his creativity and thus allowed him to experiment freely. At age 8 cartooning became Peterka’s fascination, fantasy drawing took over at 12, and medieval mapmaking became a source of intrigue at 16. He became fascinated with classic renaissance and baroque artists such as Titian, Da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Vermeer and reflects this respect for the greats in his work. He affirmed that his focus has mostly been on the human form in its most natural and representational manner.

For Peterka, the pieces within “Losses and Longings” represent the different phases of his life and the methods in which he has experienced growth as a result. “These works are records of my artistic and emotional growth and all hold memories of losses and longings along the way…they are my past, present and future…they are my journal entries, fevered visions and ecstasy explorations…I strive to allow myself the freedom to experiment with materials in ways I never have before, allowing the idea to dictate the medium.”

“Losses and Longings” is filled with an array of unique paintings, assemblages and sculpture, and as a result the visitor’s eye is never bored. In “Sodo Train Yard,” Peterka highlights a particular vantage point from his Georgetown abode in south Seattle. A train yard, cement factory and freeway are captured within the blurred photographic piece, which is composed of a bright light palette of white, gray, blue, pink and orange tones. The piece is minimal, with not much intricate detail captured save lines, buildings and towers. Sketch lines, paint drips and shading are all at work to give illusions of shadows on train cars and the freeway. The sky is foreboding gray, the trademark of the city.

“The Sudarium” is easily one of the exhibit’s standout pieces. The boldly colored, hauntingly dark triptych was a commissioned piece for a Brooklyn-based metal band that was used as their album cover. The large-scale painting depicts homage to Da Vinci and Peterka’s other renaissance heroes. The piece is a scene with two angels holding a crying baby on a blood-covered blanket in the center. They wear black clothing covered by white robes and also don black wings, hinting at their possible representation of “the other side.” Their faces are intricately detailed, contoured and shaped, and their eyes, hands and bodies all hearken to realism. The scene behind them is that of a city up in flames and smoke, and the grounds are cracked in the center below. The majority of the piece is composed with dark colors and paints, fiery burning red, black smoke and gray buildings, but it is juxtaposed with the white angelic cloaks and baby. The event highlighted may conjure up biblical images of the book of Revelations, or general thoughts about how the world could one day come to end: up in flames.

Peterka’s collage sculptures are as visually remarkable and thoughtful as his painted works. “L’extracteur” is a mixed-media assemblage based on a wooden plank that has been painted to exhibit a greasy, dirty aesthetic. The following items are attached to the panel: wires, meters, a wood piece with a frog skeleton attached and nameplates with “l’extracteur” and “pas en ordre” on them, which translate to “the extractor” and “out of order.” The composition emanates a profound “steampunk,” vintage and noir visual scheme, which plays off Victorian era and 19th century England style themes. The rusty pipes and wires emphasize the intention to make these pieces antique-like and are aspects of the overall worn appeal. The entire apparatus and some of the others surrounding it give the impression of pieces built in a laboratory, next to half-finished robots, time machines and other failed scientific experiments.

“Losses and Longings” is on exhibit through Oct. 3 at Fulcrum Gallery, located at 1308 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday from 12-6 p.m. For more information, call (253) 250-0520 or visit fulcrum.oliverdoriss.com.