Italian artist Agostino Arrivabene's heavily textured paintings look as if they were unearthed from an ancient crypt. Oil paint mixes with gold leaf and enamel on wood panel, blistering and building up in a crust-like fashion that complements Arrivabene's visceral subject matter. Like his American contemporaries Mike Davis and Dan Quintana, Arrivabene reaches into the annals of medieval and Renaissance painting for inspiration. But he is onto something more diabolical, extracting a dark side from portraits of nobles and saints. We recently saw Arrivabene's new work in the group shows "bienArt Collective 2013" at Copro Gallery in LA and "The 13th Hour" at Last Rites Gallery in New York. Take a look at more of his recent work after the jump.