A piece titled “Happy Mother’s Day” from the Pierce exhibit, which is on display through Wednesday.

“The world doesn’t need another pretty picture right now,” said Morrison Pierce, whose exhibit “Flour,” on display at Made in Astoria through Wednesday, calls attention to the Israel-Hamas War.

The exhibit’s title references the “flour massacre” in Gaza, an incident on Feb. 29 when 118 Palestinians were killed and 760 injured after Israeli forces opened fire on civilians who were attempting to get food from aid trucks.

Pierce had been working on another difficult subject — the epidemic of drug addiction — when the ground invasion of Gaza began the Israel-Hamas War last October and diverted his attention.

“The images of suffering coming out of Gaza have moved me more deeply than anything since 9/11,” he said.

In response, Pierce has created 20 pieces for this show. The images are chaotic and frenzied, capturing the intensity of a crisis still unfolding.

Scattered and jagged lines echo the emotional content of a Palestinian mother cradling the lifeless body of her child. Another painting shows a boy seated in a blue chair, regarding a city turned to rubble in the distance, the sky cast with an eerie blood-orange glow.

Many of the images use text on top of the paintings, scribbled in handwriting that might belong to a child, a nod to the thousands of children who have been killed since October.

According to Pierce, some paintings also reference military aid given to Israel by the United States.

Though the images are disturbing, they are cohesive artistic responses rendered in paint rather than photorealistic captures. “People say the content is heavy,” Pierce tells me, “but it’s light compared to the reality of what these people are living through right now.”

In March, the World Food Programme reported that over a million people in Gaza have exhausted their food supplies and are struggling with hunger and starvation.

“As a society, we’ve lost our way when innocent people are dying and you’re supposed to look the other way or pretend it isn’t happening,” Pierce said. “There has to be a way for us to coexist. Every person deserves to be seen as human.”

Pierce, who is originally from Mississippi, is an avid traveler who has made his home in Astoria for the past seven years. He has spent a lifetime pushing boundaries as a contemporary artist, often responding to current events with his paintbrush.

His work exemplifies the role artists have played for centuries, documenting world events and providing a perspective that only an artist can capture.

After a lifetime of artwork that reflects primarily the dark side of human existence, Pierce finds himself asking what comes next. “We have to stand up for these people or there will be no one left to stand up for us,” he said.

In addition to the show on display at Made in Astoria — a gallery opened last year as the brainchild of husband-and-wife artists Bill Atwood and Annie Eskelin — Pierce will display additional images in the series May 15 at KALA at 7 p.m. for a benefit gathering of artists raising funds for Gaza relief efforts.

‘Flour’ by Morrison Pierce

‘Flour’ by Morrison Pierce

On display through Wednesday

Made in Astoria, 1269 Commercial St., Astoria

www.made-in-astoria.com