ESCAPE FROM LA: VOLUME 2020

Escape from LA: Volume 2020, 2021 (Screen print, iridescent oil stickon canvas) 85 x 55 x 1.5 in215.9 x 139.7 x 3.8 cm   Ah, Hollywood, the land of dreams and glory... not to mention raging wildfires and burning materialism. Just as everything in New York seems to have a deeper story while Los Angeles lives and dies by appearances, this piece pushes the bad news to the background and paints a simplistic façade in front of it. No longer in control at all (but unwilling to admit it, even to himself) after being imprisoned by California's state of emergency, our anti-hero powers through. He's desperate to make the best of whatever life serves him, indulging in the temporary pleasures of luxury and trendy tourism, taunting even the virus itself by taking a big bite of its mythos and swallowing it whole. This time around, XVALA has chosen to make reference to the work of Leonardo da Vinci. The figure, once again in the form of Homer Simpson, seems to view himself as the Salvator Mundi – th