Novel Romance is made up of thousands of images of romance novels. This works speaks to the narrative of epic (sometimes villainous) female leaders, as it relates to romance and passion.

Novus ordo seclorum (Latin for "New order of the ages”), incorporates thousands of famous images from American history. This work speaks to an array of American signs and symbols and how they connect to "New World Order", America's seemingly illusive economic power, as well as,"The Illuminati", and Freemasonry. Prints and posters available, contact for more information.

Fire and Ice includes imagery of fire/explosions and water/ice. In this work, I bring attention to the “Garden of Eden” narrative, and it’s (possible) location, modern day Iraq. Here I emphasize various binary oppositions, as well as war in this region a flight for water and oil, and what has been considered the birthplace of monotheism.

Eye Dream, 2019, honors Dr. Martin Luther King, JR, where the mosaic metaphor is symbolic of the Civil Rights movement where people come together to combat inequity. This work includes thousands of images depicting MLK’s legacy as well as others on the front lines fighting for social equality.

Magic Circus, 2018, includes thousands of images representing deception, illusion, trickery and magic.

Exit Wound, is comprised of thousands of images depicting luxury, life-style and morality. For more information or pricing please contact.

Ariella J Asher

Beauty and Denial: Elusive Ecstasy and the New Eden Dream, 2018, digital collage, please contact for prints.

Artist Statement

American landscape paintings from the Hudson River School in the mid-19th century illustrated ecological paradise. These unblemished backdrops exemplified formal beauty and ‘God-like’ majesty, as well as discovery, exploration, ‘manifest destiny’, the ‘American Dream’, and colonial expansion. However, while Hudson River School artists romanticized the seemingly untouched, fertile beauty of North America – the Civil War, Great Sioux War, and Franco-Mexican War, were key conflicts that shaped the American landscape in dramatic ways. In addition, the Emancipation Proclamation, assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and various other industrial developments existed during this time. By re-contextualizing various events from this era and placing them into Albert Bierstadt’s painting, Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California (1865), I present a more complex, realistic, cultural, American landscape.

In Beauty and Denial: Elusive Ecstasy and the New Eden Dream, I arranged and gathered nearly one thousand images from this time period to create a larger picture. With countless images to examine, and in relationship to the Bierstadt painting, each viewer gravitates to different signs and symbols, making everyone’s viewpoint distinct and singular. This dialogue speaks to each individual’s diverse mosaic-like perspective. In many ways I am a mosaic; my identity, as well as my varied artistic practice, which is complex and changing. My interest in exposing the ideals of modern progress, post-colonialism, and diaspora is influenced by my American-Middle Eastern identity, and by my father’s experience as a Jewish refugee from Baghdad, Iraq.

Within Beauty and Denial: Elusive Ecstasy and the New Eden Dream, I bring attention to a historic tendency in visual art, and in particular the Hudson River School, to disengage with, and camouflage the tense socio-political climate during the time these paintings were made. The blending of imagery in my work is also a metaphor for the unification of culture, time, and place in history. From various distances this work also echoes the expression, “things are not always what they seem”. This work is a critical investigation and asks viewers to look deeper into the context and complex relationship between images and American history.

In Cradle to Grave, forbiddingly daring acts of conception, romance, and creationism contrast the gun, a man-made symbol of death and protection. For more information or pricing please contact.

The Almighty Dollar, 2017, is comprised of historical and contemporary images of working class Americans, immigrants, African-American slaves, factory workers, refugees, farmers, and migrant workers. Prints available, contact for more information.

"Favor Our Undertakings" is a Latin inscription on the US dollar bill. This mosaic incorporates thousands of famous images from American history coming together to form one giant picture.

"We are all Dreamers" was created for ULHE conference at DU (Denver University) in 2018. Reproductions available, contact for more information.