'Tom Cruise,' Screen Print and Oil Stick on Canvas by XVALA
This large, mixed media work by artist XVALA depicts the infamous actor Tom Cruise. The background features primarily painted gold and white tones with a variety of images of Tom Cruise enhanced by the artist with oil stick. The painting is layered with images of the actor and masks created by the artist.
XVALA's art illuminates the hidden fallout spawned from our high tech Internet age. His Fear Google campaign exposed the decay of privacy and No Delete used hacked nude celebrity photos to highlight loss of control over personal information. The artist has worked with trash from the homes of Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and others, as well as dirt from the graves of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. The dirt appears in the New World Order collection as part of a pyramidal, 3D printed, living ant farm, a symbol of the surveillance and conformity the digital state forces on users.
XVALA exposes a blurring between public and private information while supporting privacy, freedom of speech, and content ownership. His Meme Ranch project addresses a theft of both freedom of information and freedom of expression by governments and tech giants.
XVALA is often compared to Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Richard Prince. His street art offers satirical commentary on other artists, including Banksy.
- Subject Matter: Abstract Faces and Tom Cruise
- Created: 2019
- Collections: Large Horizontal Works of Art, Local Oklahoma Art