Vladimir Putin Painting — www.brianwhiteleyart.com

_{VLADIMIR PUTIN PAINTING AT TRUMP’S DC HOTEL}
I hung my subversive oil portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin—depicting the foreign leader with the White House looming in the background—directly into a luxury suite at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., I executed a sharp critique of political complacency and corporate surveillance. As detailed by cultural platforms like Hyperallergic, my painting remained clandestinely displayed on the wall for an entire month while passing completely unnoticed by hotel guests, cleaning staff, and security alike.

When I returned to the hotel to investigate and successfully retrieved the artwork by telling staff I had forgotten something in the suite, I managed to take it right back off the wall—only to be intercepted, jostled, and forcibly escorted off the property by security once management realized what I was taking. By weaponizing the architecture of a high-end hospitality suite patronized by political loyalists, I exposed the ideological blind spots of the contemporary political elite, demonstrating that systemic devotion to a political figure can induce absolute blindness to overt symbols of foreign geopolitical influence.

Installed in the Presidential Suite on August 1st, 2018 - Remained in place for three weeks.
HYPERALLERGIC • DAZED DIGITAL • NYLON • YAHOO
Subsequent showings at Hashimoto Contemporary Gallery LES, Stay Frosty Art Fair and “Art Hole Bodega”

_{On August 1st, Brian Andrew Whiteley placed his painting of Vladimir Putin in the Pennsylvania Avenue suite at Trump's DC Hotel. The room overlooked the Washington Monument and was steps away from the White House. Three weeks later, there was still no response from the Hotel. What had happened to the painting? Whiteley went back in early September to investigate. When he arrived again he told the Trump staff that he had "forgot something in the suite". They allowed him access to the suite and there it was...still hanging. The painting was up for an entire month! After jostling with the staff, security and the management, he was able to prove that the painting was his property. At that point Whiteley was forcibly removed from the property and thrown out of the hotel.}

_{Projects like the Vladimir Putin Painting, the Trump Tombstone and Golden Showers: A Sex Hex (The recreation of the infamous Golden Showers/Russian Dossier) were designed to portray larger, more complex and abstract ideas festering in the public conscious about the Trump administration. Ideas that are generally known but are lacking the "proof". I hope that these projects pull back the curtain a bit and shed some light on the state of affairs in America. - Brian Andrew Whiteley}