In Dante Cannatella’s work, the landscape reclaims the city. The lines between inside and outside are blurred and lives play out against the truth of uncertainty and impermanence. The paintings reflect growing up amidst the destruction and rebuilding of New Orleans. Set against this backdrop and the deluge myth, the figures are caught in a theater of human folly that explores inner worlds and outer realities and the powerful forces of nature, commerce, and mass thought that shape, nurture, and destroy them. The figurative elements weigh against each other and take on roles such as the self, symbols of authority, the conscious witness, the audience, and the chorus.