This series of Star Wars characters cast in the guise of Byzantine saint icons is a playful parody of the worship and adoration that fans give to these beloved figures. The paintings in this series draw on many of the typical features of Byzantine iconography, including the subjects’ hand gestures and postures, draped clothing with angular folds in high contrast, and stylized portraits with large eyes, elongated faces, and distinct outlines. Jabba the Hutt’s Last Supper, diverging somewhat from this pattern, blends a more realistic style in portraying the figures (in accordance with da Vinci’s masterpiece) with the gold background and Greek character labeling deployed in the rest of the series.

Alex Ramos is a self-taught artist working in acrylic paints on canvas. In addition to his popular Icons of Science Fiction series, he paints landscapes, cityscapes, and still lifes so realistic and detailed that they are often mistaken for photographs. Alex is an alumnus of Harvard Divinity School and earned a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and he currently resides in central Pennsylvania.