We’ve seen pop queen Madonna with a myriad of looks over the years but we’ve never seen her quite like this.

Artist Peter Reynosa of Yuba City, CA held an art show called the17 Paintings of Madonna in Los Angeles recently. His paintings are both controversial and intriguing. At first glance you would never know Madonna was Peter’s muse, his pieces are not pop art, instead he uses symbolism which he finds to be “more powerful”.

Says Reynosa, “I would describe my paintings as abstract portraits of Madonna with a lot of symbolism that attempt to talk about a serious subject. Some are complimentary of her and her beliefs, yet some are critical of her or her beliefs.”

Take a look for yourself, the artist describes each one:

Madonna and Lourdes. It is not controversial. It is a beautiful painting of Madonna and her daughter. It is a mother and child painting. Actually, Madonna is holding her daughter and protecting her like a rock as she creates a protective barrier around her. I painted Lourdes as a child because in Madonna’s eyes she will always be a child. And I have her breast feeding her to show their emotive connection.

Madonna Making Love on a Full Moon. And here we see two phallic symbols struggling to dominate each other.. It is really a painting about the sexual politics between a man and a woman.

Madonna and Aborted Child. This is a painting of Madonna with one of her aborted children. I dress them up like they did in the Renaissance because in that time Madonna and child paintings were popular. The white on their faces represent their innocence. The nimbuses around their heads represent how they are both holy. And the crosses represent death, the death of the child and a part of the death of the woman for having an abortion. And yet, it is not a mean painting or ugly painting. But it is a tragic painting

Madonna Dreaming about Existentialism. Here we see our world and mankind (Madonna melting) and everything sacred to mankind (the cross) melting away by our giant red sun in a hopeless universe. Obviously, this painting is about existentialism and my interpretation how Madonna might dream about how horrible it might be if we truly exist in an existential universe.

Madonna Practicing Autoerotic Aphyxiation. It is actually also making fun of Piet Mondrian, a famous abstract painter who said his artwork was very religious and serious. He also did paintings with straight up and down lines and only a couple of colors.

This artist has also composed a poem about Madonna, here's the link:

http://goldenbridgeinmate39.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/o-madonna-by-peter/