White artist displays Black Lives Matter paintings at DNC
He was in good company: Banksy had a piece there, and Shepard Fairey’s posters covered two walls in the DNC-related gallery. With his space, D’Antuono decided to address racism in the criminal justice system.
He got into political art with The Truth, a portrait of Barack Obama. D'Antuono likes his portraits to capture more about their sitters than their likenesses, and he painted Obama as a Christ figure, his head encircled by a crown of thorns and his arms outstretched. The piece is a metaphor about how the conservative media crucify the president, whereas liberals tend to glorify him into martyrdom.
D'Antuono also has some problems with freedom of speech, namely, he feels his is being constricted. When the California Endowment wanted to feature The Talk on a billboard, Clear Channel forbade it. He tried to exhibit some of his work in a New York park; when conservatives planned to bus in protesters, he cancelled the event. At two high schools, students replicated his art for public viewing, only to be pressured not to show it (surprisingly not for copyright infringement).