Branded Series: LV Faded Moss

Branded Series: LV Faded Moss by Chris Valle 2016, Acrylic and oil on panel, 30 x 24 inches. The partially unrealized image of supermodel Kate Moss emerges from—or recedes into—the background, a field of designer Takashi Murakami’s Multicolore monogram pattern, created for a Luis Vuitton collection. Moss’s eyes are obscured and her figure faded, and what remains of the pink, human tones of her skin is being dissolved by texture and the encroaching, faded grey, all causing the visual line between “brand” and individual to be obscured or blurred.

This painting is part of the Branded Series by artist Chris Valle, who says, “As a whole, our culture is consumed by the way our bodies look, and it is the images on television and in advertising that we try to emulate. The images mass media presents become selffulfilling prophecies . . . . From television and mass media we learn who we are, how we should dress, how we should act, what we should look like, what is sexy and what is not, who has power and who does not, what is of value and what is not, what is right and what is not. My paintings are a social commentary reflecting these issues.”