“Temple Tomb Fortress Ruin,” an exhibition of paintings by John Wellington, is at the Lodge Gallery through March 5. Wellington embraces the formal tactics of the old masters to depict a bleak, surreal, new world order—seemingly both ancient and modern, Eastern and Western—animated above all by a kind of perverted militarism. His work fixates, as his gallery writes, on “lost worlds, passing empires, false prophets, unlikely heroes, and the allure of idolatry.”

John Wellington, You and Me, 2009, oil and copper leaf on aluminum, 68″ x 48″.

THIS IS A COMEDY, 2010, oil and aluminum leaf on aluminum, 48″ x 28.25″.

PROPHETE, 2011, oil on wood panel, 48″ diameter.

COME NEARER THE FIRE, 2008, oil and copper leaf on aluminum, 75″ x 48″.

BATHING DIANA (with guards), 2013, oil on aluminum, 30″ x 48″.