The timed auction ends Thursday August 27th at 8:00pm. Whoever holds the highest bid at the auction closing time wins.
Shane Bonsujet
The whore of babylon, 2026
Acrylic paint on stretched canvas
Height 90 cm x Width 90 cm
Artwork is stretched and ready to hang & comes with a certificate of authenticity
Starting Bid: $1,200
The Whore of Babylon reimagines one of the most provocative figures from the Book of Revelation as a psychological and symbolic landscape. Rather than illustrating scripture, the painting uses biblical imagery to explore temptation, power, mortality, and the fragile nature of human belief.
At the centre of the work, a red-robed figure rides a hybrid beast—a creature suspended between the familiar and the monstrous. The beast becomes a vessel for contradiction, embodying both strength and corruption, while the rider appears calm, almost ceremonial, challenging the viewer’s instinct to divide the world into good and evil. The barren tree, the serpent emerging from the fallen chalice, and the shadowed figure on the horizon suggest a world where spiritual certainty has withered, leaving only symbols whose meanings remain unresolved.
My practice is rooted in the belief that myth and religion continue to shape our inner lives, regardless of faith. I use simplified forms, bold colour, and symbolic imagery to create paintings that feel both ancient and immediate. The visual language draws on folk traditions and iconography, allowing the narrative to remain open rather than fixed.
For me, Babylon is not a place or a woman, but a condition of humanity—our capacity for seduction, excess, and self-deception, alongside our longing for redemption. The Whore of Babylon invites viewers to inhabit that tension, asking them to consider whether the true apocalypse is an external event or something that unfolds within ourselves.
Artist Bio: Shane Bonsujet is a visual artist based and working out of his studio in Melbourne.
Shanes art often draws on lived experiences and memories that explore themes of psychology, growth, empowerment and discovery forming a deep connection with viewers.
Emotive, expressive, intuitive and playful, Shane's paintings are inspired by many influences such as the natural world, existentialism and philosophy that create a balance and duality between depth in concept and naïve appearance. Bold colours and expressive brushwork create an open dancefloor for curious mark making, patterns, naïve characters, symbols and motifs that balance abstraction and various other styles and references.
Shanes paintings are held in public and private collections all over the country and internationally, and has been a finalist in various notable art prizes such as the Blacktown art prize, Fishers Ghost art prize, Hawkesbury art prize, Lethbridge 10,000 and exhibited in several exhibitions, group shows and art fairs.
Dimensions:
90 cm x 90 cm