Pop Art Figurative Paintings

Italian artist Fabio Coruzzi merges painting and photography into one imaginative image that offers a new outlook on an otherwise ordinary urban scene. His artworks represent an auth...

Dachshund Dogs Parade In the artistic world, animals have always been key protagonists in expressing the power and beauty of the wild. Artists often use animals as symbols to conve...

Los Angeles street artist Gary John exploded onto the international art scene first during Art Basel Miami in 2013. John’s playfully bold work quickly gained attention and he was nam...

Los Angeles street artist Gary John exploded onto the international art scene first during Art Basel Miami in 2013. John’s playfully bold work quickly gained attention and he was nam...

J. C. Morey is a Spanish artist from the province of Alicante. He was born into a family of artists and connected to the art world since the 60s, which gave him the opportunity from...

J. C. Morey is a Spanish artist from the province of Alicante. He was born into a family of artists and connected to the art world since the 60s, which gave him the opportunity from...

As one of the world’s most collected, significant pop artists today, Nelson De La Nuez is a born iconoclast. Using his unique juxtaposition of pop culture and surrealism, blended with America’s rich culture and history, De La Nuez has created works of art that are considered timeless. Listed on the “Who’s Who List of the Most Collected Artists of Our Time,” his works are original, bold and outspoken. The artist is known for his distinctive, trademarked style called “Art on the Edge,” which is creating art on all sides of the canvas. This one-of-a-kind pop art painting measures 42 inches square. De la Nuez used Mixed Media, Acrylic Paint, and Oil Pastel on Canvas to create this original artwork. It is signed on the front and the back by the artist. The sides of this artwork are created as a continuation of the front and it does not require framing. It is wired and ready to hang. Free local Los Angeles area delivery. Affordable U.S. and global shipping are available. A certificate of authenticity issued by the art gallery is included. Nelson De La Nuez was born in 1959 in Havana, Cuba, and came to the United States at age seven. He was raised in California. De La Nuez studied Art History at Boston University where he was inspired by the French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist periods. Though his paintings are clearly Pop Art, the subtle humor of artists like Edouard Manet and Pablo Picasso echo throughout his playful work. De La Nuez’s work hangs in some of the most prominent private collections of movie stars, directors, producers, comedians, and corporations. His work has been purchased by Sotheby’s for future auctions and his works sell out consistently at major international shows and fairs. Nelson De La Nuez tries to create a new generation of art lovers, drawing upon icons and art history to entice younger minds, in turn provoking the interest of the generation above them. The L.A. Times called De La Nuez “the comedic da Vinci of our times.” His ability to use non-related images to achieve a whole new and stimulating outlook on life has brought him many awards and published features. The artist continues to challenge himself to incorporate new and exciting ideas into his art and his style. He believes he is a success if his art inspires people to think beyond the norm. Artplex Gallery has been representing and exhibiting Nelson de la Nuez's original artworks since 2016. Artplex Gallery is a partner gallery of Artspace Warehouse. Artspace Warehouse has been a 1stdibs partner since 2014 with consistently excellent reviews from clients worldwide. The gallery exhibits a large selection of original artworks from established and emerging international artists with diverse backgrounds at high standards. Artspace Warehouse and Artplex Gallery are known to provide accurate descriptions, images, reliable services, communication, and delivery. REPRESENTATION Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA EXHIBITIONS 2023 "Perspectives on Street Art", Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2022 "Freestyle Iconography", Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2021 Hamptons Market Art & Design. The Bridgehampton Museum 2021 Beach Life, DTR Modern Gallery, Nantucket 2021 “Live It Up” De La Nuez, Jennifer Balcos Gallery, Buckhead, ATL 2021 “Winter Wonderland”, DTR Modern Gallery, Washington DC 2020 DTR Modern Gallery, New York 2020 White Room Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY 2020 A Style Gallery, Solo Show, Hong Kong 2020 DTR Modern Gallery, Boston 2019 Pop Art Then & Now, DTR Modern Gallery, Boston, MA 2019 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Australia 2019 Hamptons Market Art & Design, the Bridgehampton Museum 2019 Art Fair Hong Kong 2018 Art Fair, New York, NY 2018 Baselworld, Basel, Switzerland 2018 Art Market San Francisco, CA 2018 LA Modern & Contemporary Art Show, CA 2018 Pop, Bang; De La Nuez, DTR Modern Palm Beach, FL 2017 Hong Kong, HK 2017 Corum Bubble Watch...

2014 Drawing on paper, mounted on wood Image: 90 x 90 x 2.5 cm Frame: 103 x 103 x 5.8 cm Unique Studio no: D-2014-001

Carl Smith is an American artist who has been living in Berlin, Germany, since 2001. He works with a combination of silkscreen printing, collage, and painting to create his urban ins...

Amy Smith is a self-educated contemporary artist. Born in New Jersey, she moved to Los Angeles where she found inspiration, mentors, and support in the Street Art community. In her...

Italian artist Fabio Coruzzi merges painting and photography into one imaginative image that offers a new outlook on an otherwise ordinary urban scene. His artworks represent an auth...

Los Angeles street artist Gary John exploded onto the international art scene first during Art Basel Miami in 2013. John’s playfully bold work quickly gained attention and he was nam...

Los Angeles street artist Gary John exploded onto the international art scene during the Art Basel Miami art fair in 2013. John’s playfully bold work quickly gained attention and he ...

Gary John's pop-street artworks have a whimsical, yet exciting and bold quality inspired by classic cartoon and comic book characters. Blending pop sensibilities with a roughened fau...

Peter Max, German/American (1937 - ) - Running Man, Year: 1989, Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, signed, Size: 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.64 cm), Frame Size: 24 x 21 inches

Vivid contemporary pop art style acrylic painting on paper of two synchronized swimmers posed in unison on a bright blue background by Marc Foster Grant (American, b. 1947), 2007. Th...

Italian artist Fabio Coruzzi merges painting and photography into one imaginative image that offers a new outlook on an otherwise ordinary urban scene. His artworks represent an auth...

Italian artist Fabio Coruzzi merges painting and photography into one imaginative image that offers a new outlook on an otherwise ordinary urban scene. His artworks represent an auth...

This piece depicts famous British model Kate Moss from a Fall 2013 ad campaign with Stuart Weitzman during the Milan Fashion Week while featuring Kate Moss swaggering to Nancy Sinatr...

Aaron Fink (American, b. 1955) Hand signed and dated 1986, verso. The large canvas size measures approx: 72" x 66". This painting is part of the artist's "Images of Gambling" serie...

Italian artist Fabio Coruzzi merges painting and photography into one imaginative image that offers a new outlook on an otherwise ordinary urban scene. His artworks represent an auth...

Artist: Mel Ramos, American (1935 - ) Title: O from the Hollywood Suite Year: 2009 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed and dated verso Size: 39.5 in. x 30 in. (100.33 cm x 76.2 cm) Frame S...

Los Angeles street artist Gary John exploded onto the international art scene first during Art Basel Miami in 2013. John’s playfully bold work quickly gained attention and he was nam...

Elise Remender captures the romantic glamour of a bygone era in her contemporary figurative paintings that blend classical fine art and contemporary pop realism. Fantasy, mid-century fashion, and the glamour of travel and coastal living inform soft brush strokes and abstracted beauty; reminiscent of vintage advertisements and dusted sunlight. This original 37-inch square acrylic on canvas painting evokes a sense of delight and playfully nods at summery vintage aesthetics. It is signed by Remender on the front bottom right corner of the artwork. The sides are painted as a continuation of the front and it does not require framing. Free delivery within the local Los Angeles area. Affordable Continental U.S. and international shipping available. This artwork includes a certificate of authenticity issued by the gallery. Remender grew up in Arizona and is based in Southern California, but she has traveled all over the world gaining inspiration for her work. Her most recent series, Bathing Beauties, which captures the human form and abstracts it through light and reflection, was inspired by the vintage elegance and history of Southeast Asia’s historic hotel pools and gardens. It evokes a bygone era when Ernest Hemingway and Jackie O. were among the clientele. “I’m a bit of an old soul and there is a sense of elegance and beauty that has been lost in modern-day society, and I seek to recapture this essence in my work. I’m creating a sort of fantasy world of luxury, leisure, and old Hollywood glamour.” Her work has appeared in galleries in the US and Asia and in GQ Magazine, Architectural Digest, Dwell, California Home, People, among many other publications. Her paintings hang in luxury properties including The Ritz Carlton San Francisco, The Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas, and Hilton properties across the United States, as well as in the homes of celebrity collectors including Ryan Seacrest and Kylie Jenner. REPRESENTATION: Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, CA EXHIBITIONS: 2023 Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2021 “The Beauty Myth”, Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2018 “All American Inspired,” Merritt Gallery/Renaissance Fine Arts, PA, MD “At the Shore,” Eisenhauer Gallery, Edgartown, MA “Color in Motion,” Eisenhauer Gallery, Edgartown, MA “Having a Ball,” Jules Place, Boston, MA Meritt Gallery, Renaissance Fine Arts, PA, MD Studio E. Gallery, Palm Beach, FL 2017 “Distant Memories,” 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA Merrit Gallery, Renaissance Fine Arts, PA, MD “Holiday Gift Guide...

Beautifully framed - ready to hang Peter Max Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, 2005 Acrylic and collage on heavy art paper Hand signed in acrylic paint on the front, the back bears the artist's copyright and unique catalogue/inventory # This work is elegantly framed with a raised float - a gorgeous aesthetic touch in a handmade white wood museum frame under UV plexiglass. Land of Free, Home of the Brave, is an original signed painting, an acrylic and collage on heavy art paper, that was part of a series the artist did in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, with each variation in the series unique. It is hand signed in acrylic paint on the front and bears the artist copyright and stamp and the Peter Max unique inventory/catalogue on the back. Measurements: Framed 28 inches vertical by 22 inches horizontal by 2 inches Painting 24 inches vertical by 18 inches No artist of our time has reached such a vast global audience and influenced so many others who paint and draw than the legendary Peter Max. On a level comparable to Andy Warhol, but appealing to a broader base of art lovers, Max is the celebrity painter par excellence, an inescapable presence on the cultural consciousness since he burst on the scene in the 1960s. His art is in the collections of more than a hundred museums, many of which have given him solo exhibitions, as well as United States embassies, corporate headquarters and prominent private collections. Max was the first rock-star-scale artist. Even when he was only in his twenties, he was featured on the cover of Life magazine and appeared on late-night talk shows. Now revered as an “Old Master” of Neo-Expressionism, Max’s legacy has gone way past his graphic design origins and inspired generations of artists, including many gathered under the Park West umbrella. An instant media sensation when he made his debut in the 1960s as the go-to artist for the leading rock bands in the heyday of the Woodstock era, Max’s career became ever more public over the decades. At the invitation of the White House, he has made the portraits of six sitting United States presidents and scores of world leaders. He was named the official artist for the Grammies as well as the United States 2006 Winter Olympics team, the World Cup, the U.S. Open tennis championships, the Super Bowl and several music festivals, high-profile events that carried his signature style literally to billions of viewers. Peter Max’s amazing life story, as captivating as his art, was shaped by world events from the start to this day. The literal journey around the world has all the drama of an epic movie. He was born in Berlin in the perilous year of 1937. The next year, his father Jacob recognized that the family could narrowly escape the Nazis by taking the long ocean voyage to join the extensive Jewish refugee community in Shanghai. He has vivid memories living in an old villa across the street from the bright red columns in front of a Buddhist temple where the bells and incense made an indelible impression on him. He watched in fascination as they practiced their calligraphy with giant, five-foot long brushes that made huge Chinese characters on pieces of paper they laid on the ground. The young Peter was given brightly colored crayons and paper to play with by his mother Salla, but when she left the room, he started to draw on her beautiful set of Louis Vuitton steamer trunks...

A simply framed example of Peter Max’s American flag paintings, one of his most used motifs other than the Statue of Liberty. The simplified fl...

Naguy Claude mixes popular culture icons and street art with comic and cartoon characters, as well as famous superheroes, in his original layered mixed media paintings. His artworks ...

Italian artist Fabio Coruzzi merges painting and photography into one imaginative image that offers a new outlook on an otherwise ordinary urban scene. His artworks represent an auth...

Artist: Peter Max (1937) Title: Liberty Head Year: 2005 Medium: Mixed Media on archival paper Size: 30 x 24 inches Condition: Excellent Inscription: Signed b...

Original and unique artwork by Russell Young. Acrylic paint and enamel screen print on linen, unframed dimensions 62 x 48 inches, 2008, from the series "Fame + Shame". Bright and viv...

Romero Britto "Hollywood Romance" mixed media digital giclee painting print on canvas, featuring a dancing couple in a the artist's characteristic whimsical theme. Measurements: V...

Contemporary figurative acrylic on canvas painting by Polish artist Joanna Woyda. Painting is in minimalistic, pop art style. Artwork has very calming atmosphere. Painting is part of...

Italian artist Fabio Coruzzi merges painting and photography into one imaginative image that offers a new outlook on an otherwise ordinary urban scene. His artworks represent an authenticity unlike any other: layered, textural, controversial, open to imagination, colorful, personal, and inspiring. Coruzzi’s work encapsulates not only urban environments, but the inhabitants as well. Irony is laced between figures drawn with an energetic architectural hand. His work is colorful, funny, and biting through resolutely rendered vignettes of people and places. Fabio Coruzzi used acrylic paint and oil pastel to create this one-of-a-kind artwork on canvas. It is signed by the artist on the front and back. This colorful 32-inch high by 24-inch wide original painting is stretched, wired, and ready to hang. It does not require framing. Free local Los Angeles delivery. Affordable U.S. and worldwide shipping available. A certificate of authenticity issued by the art gallery is included. Fabio Coruzzi was born in Foggia, Italy in 1975, and now resides in Southern California, USA. Remarking on his work in conjunction with his perspective on urban environments, Fabio states: "I wish that each painting I make should be like a poem of the place where I've been. I wish to become a poet of our time, like somebody would tell: "I've been there", but telling that my way, telling the audience that, no matter where we are, in a boulevard or in a restaurant, each single place is like an empty box...

Gary John's pop-street artworks have a whimsical, yet exciting and bold quality inspired by classic cartoon and comic book characters. Blending pop sensibilities with a roughened fau...

Playing with the interaction between positive and negative space, strong colors on neutral backgrounds, Canadian artist Virginie Schroeder creates pop art portraits and iconic pop cu...

Original oil painting on canvas. Hand signed and dated lower front; hand signed, titled and date on verso by Mark Kostabi. Canvas Size: 23.5 x 17.75 x 1.5 inches. Frame Size: 25 x...

Robert Lebsack creates artworks using mixed media with ink, acrylic, and charcoal on archival copies of newspapers, textbooks, and sheet music. As a visionary artist, Lebsack weaves ...

John Randall Nelson’s paintings are layered with his own personal language consisting of patterns, symbols, and archetypes that may not make any literal sense but play on subconsciou...

Peter Max Umbrella man 16x20 inches unframed 28x32 inches with frame Acrylic Paint on Mixed Media From a Florida collection, purchased from Wentworth gallery First off, sorry for al...

This is a hand painted pop art piece by French artist Leo Manelli. Leo shows all over the world, at art fairs, auctions and galleries worldwide.

Born in 1982 in Manzanillo, Cuba, artist Darwin Estacio Martinez honed his artistic skills at the Professional Academy of Fine Arts "El Alba" i...

Virginie Schroeder is an innovative artist based in Quebec, Canada. She puts in play lines, circles and other geometric forms to create works with subjects that are not immediately v...

Animated cartoon comic--like portrait oil painting on paper by Matt Straub. Signed on back by artist. Offered framed. Paper size: 7 x 6 inches Frame size: 11 x 9 inches. Matt Strau...

This acrylic portrait reinterprets digital emotion through a yellow-toned face with emoji-like eyes. Part of Natasha Lelenco’s You Are The One series, “Yellow Emoji” translates the ...

Los Angeles street artist Gary John exploded onto the international art scene first during Art Basel Miami in 2013. John’s playfully bold work quickly gained attention and he was nam...

3-D hand made artwork using Perler beads and mixed media in a found painting in a vintage frame the artist lives and works out of Sweden and is represented by Krause Gallery in NYC

Los Angeles street artist Gary John exploded onto the international art scene first during Art Basel Miami in 2013. John’s playfully bold work quickly gained attention and he was nam...

Elise Remender captures the romantic glamour of a bygone era in her contemporary figurative paintings that blend classical fine art and contemporary pop realism. Fantasy, mid-century fashion, and the glamour of travel and coastal living inform soft brush strokes and abstracted beauty; reminiscent of vintage advertisements and dusted sunlight. This original 50-inch square painting evokes a sense of delight and playfully nods at summery vintage aesthetics. This one-of-a-kind painting is painted with acrylic paint on canvas. It is signed by Remender on the front bottom right corner of the artwork. The sides are painted as a continuation of the front and it does not require framing. Free delivery within the local Los Angeles area. This artwork includes a certificate of authenticity issued by the gallery. Remender grew up in Arizona and is based in Southern California, but she has traveled all over the world gaining inspiration for her work. Her most recent series, Bathing Beauties, which captures the human form and abstracts it through light and reflection, was inspired by the vintage elegance and history of Southeast Asia’s historic hotel pools and gardens. It evokes a bygone era when Ernest Hemingway and Jackie O. were among the clientele. “I’m a bit of an old soul and there is a sense of elegance and beauty that has been lost in modern-day society, and I seek to recapture this essence in my work. I’m creating a sort of fantasy world of luxury, leisure, and old Hollywood glamour.” Her work has appeared in galleries in the US and Asia and in GQ Magazine, Architectural Digest, Dwell, California Home, People, among many other publications. Her paintings hang in luxury properties including The Ritz Carlton San Francisco, The Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas, and Hilton properties across the United States, as well as in the homes of celebrity collectors including Ryan Seacrest and Kylie Jenner. REPRESENTATION: Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, USA EXHIBITIONS: 2023 Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, USA 2021 “The Beauty Myth”, Artplex Gallery, Los Angeles, USA 2018 “All American Inspired,” Merritt Gallery/Renaissance Fine Arts, PA, MD, USA “At the Shore,” Eisenhauer Gallery, Edgartown, MA “Color in Motion,” Eisenhauer Gallery, Edgartown, MA “Having a Ball,” Jules Place, Boston, MA Meritt Gallery, Renaissance Fine Arts, PA, MD Studio E. Gallery, Palm Beach, FL 2017 “Distant Memories,” 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA Merrit Gallery, Renaissance Fine Arts, PA, MD “Holiday Gift Guide...

Kerry Smith Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue Mixed Media on Crescent board Year: 2022 Size: 21x20in Signed, dated by hand COA provided Ref.: 924802-1634 *Black frame with a mirror-glo...

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"Triple Elvis" (Denied) Silkscreen Painting by Charles Lutz Silkscreen and silver enamel paint on canvas with Artist's Denied stamp of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board. 82 x 72" inches 2010 This important example was shown alongside works by Warhol in a two-person show "Warhol Revisited (Charles Lutz / Andy Warhol)" at UAB Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts in 2024. Lutz's 2007 ''Warhol Denied'' series gained international attention by calling into question the importance of originality or lack thereof in the work of Andy Warhol. The authentication/denial process of the [[Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board]] was used to create value by submitting recreations of Warhol works for judgment with the full intention for the works to be formally marked "DENIED". The final product of the conceptual project being "officially denied" "Warhol" paintings authored by Lutz. Based on the full-length Elvis Presley paintings by Pop Artist Andy Warhol in 1964, this is likely one of his most iconic images, next to Campbell's Soup Cans and portraits of Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor, and Marlon Brando. This is the rarest of the Elvis works from the series, as Lutz sourced a vintage roll of 1960's primed artist linen which was used for this one Elvis. The silkscreen, like Warhol's embraced imperfections, like the slight double image printing of the Elvis image. Lutz received his BFA in Painting and Art History from Pratt Institute and studied Human Dissection and Anatomy at Columbia University, New York. Lutz's work deals with perceptions and value structures, specifically the idea of the transference of values. Lutz's most recently presented an installation of new sculptures dealing with consumerism at Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater House in 2022. Lutz's 2007 Warhol Denied series received international attention calling into question the importance of originality in a work of art. The valuation process (authentication or denial) of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board was used by the artist to create value by submitting recreations of Warhol works for judgment, with the full intention for the works to be formally marked "DENIED" of their authenticity. The final product of this conceptual project is "Officially DENIED" "Warhol" paintings authored by Lutz. Later in 2013, Lutz went on to do one of his largest public installations to date. At the 100th Anniversary of Marcel Duchamp's groundbreaking and controversial Armory Show, Lutz was asked by the curator of Armory Focus: USA and former Director of The Andy Warhol Museum, Eric Shiner to create a site-specific installation representing the US. The installation "Babel" (based on Pieter Bruegel's famous painting) consisted of 1500 cardboard replicas of Warhol's Brillo Box (Stockholm Type) stacked 20 ft tall. All 1500 boxes were then given to the public freely, debasing the Brillo Box as an art commodity by removing its value, in addition to debasing its willing consumers. Elvis was "the greatest cultural force in the Twentieth Century. He introduced the beat to everything, and he changed everything - music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution." Leonard Bernstein in: Exh. Cat., Boston, The Institute of Contemporary Art and traveling, Elvis + Marilyn 2 x Immortal, 1994-97, p. 9. Andy Warhol "quite simply changed how we all see the world around us." Kynaston McShine in: Exh. Cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art (and traveling), Andy Warhol: Retrospective, 1996, p. 13. In the summer of 1963 Elvis Presley was just twenty-eight years old but already a legend of his time. During the preceding seven years - since Heartbreak Hotel became the biggest-selling record of 1956 - he had recorded seventeen number-one singles and seven number-one albums; starred in eleven films, countless national TV appearances, tours, and live performances; earned tens of millions of dollars; and was instantly recognized across the globe. The undisputed King of Rock and Roll, Elvis was the biggest star alive: a cultural phenomenon of mythic proportions apparently no longer confined to the man alone. As the eminent composer Leonard Bernstein put it, Elvis was "the greatest cultural force in the Twentieth Century. He introduced the beat to everything, and he changed everything - music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution." (Exh. Cat., Boston, The Institute of Contemporary Art (and traveling), Elvis + Marilyn 2 x Immortal, 1994, p. 9). In the summer of 1963 Andy Warhol was thirty-four years old and transforming the parameters of visual culture in America. The focus of his signature silkscreen was leveled at subjects he brilliantly perceived as the most important concerns of day to day contemporary life. By appropriating the visual vernacular of consumer culture and multiplying readymade images gleaned from newspapers, magazines and advertising, he turned a mirror onto the contradictions behind quotidian existence. Above all else he was obsessed with themes of celebrity and death, executing intensely multifaceted and complex works in series that continue to resound with universal relevance. His unprecedented practice re-presented how society viewed itself, simultaneously reinforcing and radically undermining the collective psychology of popular culture. He epitomized the tide of change that swept through the 1960s and, as Kynaston McShine has concisely stated, "He quite simply changed how we all see the world around us." (Exh. Cat., New York, Museum of Modern Art (and traveling), Andy Warhol: Retrospective, 1996, p. 13). Thus in the summer of 1963 there could not have been a more perfect alignment of artist and subject than Warhol and Elvis. Perhaps the most famous depiction of the biggest superstar by the original superstar artist, Double Elvis is a historic paradigm of Pop Art from a breath-taking moment in Art History. With devastating immediacy and efficiency, Warhol's canvas seduces our view with a stunning aesthetic and confronts our experience with a sophisticated array of thematic content. Not only is there all of Elvis, man and legend, but we are also presented with the specter of death, staring at us down the barrel of a gun; and the lone cowboy, confronting the great frontier and the American dream. The spray painted silver screen denotes the glamour and glory of cinema, the artificiality of fantasy, and the idea of a mirror that reveals our own reality back to us. At the same time, Warhol's replication of Elvis' image as a double stands as metaphor for the means and effects of mass-media and its inherent potential to manipulate and condition. These thematic strata function in simultaneous concert to deliver a work of phenomenal conceptual brilliance. The portrait of a man, the portrait of a country, and the portrait of a time, Double Elvis is an indisputable icon for our age. The source image was a publicity still for the movie Flaming Star, starring Presley as the character Pacer Burton and directed by Don Siegel in 1960. The film was originally intended as a vehicle for Marlon Brando and produced by David Weisbart, who had made James Dean's Rebel Without a Cause in 1955. It was the first of two Twentieth Century Fox productions Presley was contracted to by his manager Colonel Tom Parker, determined to make the singer a movie star. For the compulsive movie-fan Warhol, the sheer power of Elvis wielding a revolver as the reluctant gunslinger presented the zenith of subject matter: ultimate celebrity invested with the ultimate power to issue death. Warhol's Elvis is physically larger than life and wears the expression that catapulted him into a million hearts: inexplicably and all at once fearful and resolute; vulnerable and predatory; innocent and explicit. It is the look of David Halberstam's observation that "Elvis Presley was an American original, the rebel as mother's boy, alternately sweet and sullen, ready on demand to be either respectable or rebellious." (Exh. Cat., Boston, Op. Cit.). Indeed, amidst Warhol's art there is only one other subject whose character so ethereally defies categorization and who so acutely conflated total fame with the inevitability of mortality. In Warhol's work, only Elvis and Marilyn harness a pictorial magnetism of mythic proportions. With Marilyn Monroe, whom Warhol depicted immediately after her premature death in August 1962, he discovered a memento mori to unite the obsessions driving his career: glamour, beauty, fame, and death. As a star of the silver screen and the definitive international sex symbol, Marilyn epitomized the unattainable essence of superstardom that Warhol craved. Just as there was no question in 1963, there remains still none today that the male equivalent to Marilyn is Elvis. However, despite his famous 1968 adage, "If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings" Warhol's fascination held purpose far beyond mere idolization. As Rainer Crone explained in 1970, Warhol was interested in movie stars above all else because they were "people who could justifiably be seen as the nearest thing to representatives of mass culture." (Rainer Crone, Andy Warhol, New York, 1970, p. 22). Warhol was singularly drawn to the idols of Elvis and Marilyn, as he was to Marlon Brando and Liz Taylor, because he implicitly understood the concurrence between the projection of their image and the projection of their brand. Some years after the present work he wrote, "In the early days of film, fans used to idolize a whole star - they would take one star and love everything about that star...So you should always have a product that's not just 'you.' An actress should count up her plays and movies and a model should count up her photographs and a writer should count up his words and an artist should count up his pictures so you always know exactly what you're worth, and you don't get stuck thinking your product is you and your fame, and your aura." (Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), San Diego, New York and London, 1977, p. 86). The film stars of the late 1950s and early 1960s that most obsessed Warhol embodied tectonic shifts in wider cultural and societal values. In 1971 John Coplans argued that Warhol was transfixed by the subject of Elvis, and to a lesser degree by Marlon Brando and James Dean, because they were "authentically creative, and not merely products of Hollywood's fantasy or commercialism. All three had originative lives, and therefore are strong personalities; all three raised - at one level or another - important questions as to the quality of life in America and the nature of its freedoms. Implicit in their attitude is a condemnation of society and its ways; they project an image of the necessity for the individual to search for his own future, not passively, but aggressively, with commitment and passion." (John Coplans, "Andy Warhol and Elvis Presley," Studio International, vol. 181, no. 930, February 1971, pp. 51-52). However, while Warhol unquestionably adored these idols as transformative heralds, the suggestion that his paintings of Elvis...

Los Angeles street artist Gary John exploded onto the international art scene first during Art Basel Miami in 2013. John’s playfully bold work quickly gained attention and he was nam...