Artist Elias Marrow said he wanted to draw attention to rising hunger and poverty in the country.
An unsolicited digital print hung undetected for several hours on the walls of the National Museum Cardiff in Wales after it was installed by a conceptual artist in the museum’s contemporary art wing. Later revealed to be AI-generated, Elias Marrow’s “Empty Plate” (2024) bamboozled museum visitors and staff alike, as no one could explain its presence.
The print emulates an oil portrait of a nondescript young boy in a school uniform, holding a bare plate on his lap with a dour expression. Per the artist’s website, “It is unclear whether [the boy] waits to be fed, punished, or simply forgotten.” While the subject appears to have the correct number of fingers, other aspects of the painting, including the jumbled alphabet on his uniform logo and the overall yellowish tinge to the work, are undeniable evidence of generative AI — though Marrow’s accompanying wall text does not mention it. Read the whole article here.
Three frogs, a shark, a unicorn and a Tyrannosaurus rex dance in front of a line of heavily armoured police in riot gear.
Over the past few weeks, activists taking part in protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across the United States have donned inflatable animal costumes. The aim is to disrupt the Trump administration’s claim that the protests are violent “hate America” rallies.
The result is a sight to behold, with many encounters between police and protestors going viral.
Whether they know it or not, these costumed activists are contributing to a rich history of using humour and dress to mobilise against and challenge power. Read the whole article here.
The Fletcher Exhibit of political art was hosted at East Tennessee State University for 11 years until it came under attack from right-wing figures.
A long-running art exhibition of political artwork at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) was not invited to return to the school this year after a wave of right-wing backlash, including from a Tennessee chapter of Turning Point USA.
The Fletcher Exhibit of Social and Politically Engaged Art, held annually at ETSU’s Reece Museum since 2013, came under intense scrutiny from conservatives during and after the November 2024 presidential election. The show has been organized by the family of Fletcher Dyer, who was an art student at ETSU when he died in a tragic accident in 2009, for over a decade.
In the past few months, at least three of Joey Skaggs’ classic performance works have mysteriously resurfaced—-minus the credit, the context, and, of course, the artist himself. From Elon Musk promising to replace judges and juries with his Grok AI, to a TikTok “influencer” teaching New Yorkers how to walk politely, to a national law firm resurrecting The Fat Squad to sell legal services—Skaggs’ art seems to have been reborn through the copy machine of culture.
If plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, Joey must be the most loved man in America.
But underneath the irony lies a serious question: as artificial intelligence devours the world’s creative work—scraping, remixing, and regurgitating ideas at scale—what content ownership will artists be left with? Who gets to claim the joke when everyone’s telling it?
Skaggs has spent his life exposing how easily truth can be twisted, and how the media loves a good story—whether it’s real or not. Now, his work is living proof that in the age of AI and viral mimicry, even satire can’t escape being swallowed whole.
So, here’s to keeping art human, authorship honest, and mischief original.
IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION
JOEY SKAGGS,
Plaintiff,
v. MORGAN & MORGAN,
Defendant.
COMPLAINT FOR MISAPPROPRIATION OF UNAUTHORIZED SATIRE AND CULTURAL DILUTION
New York, NY — Artist, satirist, and cultural saboteur Joey Skaggs today filed a lawsuit in the Court of Public Opinion against America’s largest personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan for shamelessly swiping his legendary Fat Squad media hoax and stuffing it into their latest commercial.
For the record, The Fat Squad (est. 1986) was a groundbreaking internationally successful performance art hoax in which comandos were contracted to guard dieters around the clock — tackling them away from Twinkies, escorting them past buffets, and yelling “Drop that donut!” before it hit their lips. It is memorialized in both Andrea Marini’s “Art of the Prank” documentary and Joey Skaggs’ Oral History film series.
Joey Skaggs: The Fat Squad tease:
Morgan & Morgan’s new ad? Blatantly similar — but with all the calories of satire burned off.
THE FACTS
Plaintiff conceived, developed, and performed The Fat Squad decades before TikTok, meme culture, or commercial law firms decided satire was good for business.
On or about August 1, 2025, Defendant released a commercial campaign which bears obvious similarity to Plaintiff’s original work.
Said commercial paraded themes, images, and absurdities long perfected by Plaintiff, without acknowledgment, credit, or the faintest wink of irony.
Defendant thereby committed cultural plagiarism in the first degree, profiting from the very social critique Plaintiff pioneered.
THE CHARGES
Count I:Cultural Grand Theft Satire
Defendant unlawfully adopted Plaintiff’s absurdist concept without permission, thereby reducing art to advertising.
Count II:Unwarranted Enrichment by Unjust Laughter
Defendant profited from a concept that wasn’t theirs, without even a courtesy “tip of the wig.”
Count III:Infliction of Mental Distress
Defendant forced Mr. Skaggs to endure the trauma of watching his biting social critique watered down into a punchline for legal fees. Symptoms include ironic groaning, eye-rolling, and muttering “I did it first” into the void.
DAMAGES DEMANDED
Plaintiff demands compensation in the form of:
A public confession from Morgan & Morgan, aired during the Super Bowl halftime, admitting Joey Skaggs is funnier than their entire marketing department.
Mandatory enrollment of at least one Morgan & Morgan attorney into the actual Fat Squad program, including midnight refrigerator raids and fast-food stakeouts.
Punitive damages: Morgan & Morgan agrees to provide lifetime pro bono representation for Joey Skaggs—and any other artists who suffer theft of creative concepts, whether analog or AI, in perpetuity.
PLAINTIFF’S STATEMENT
“When I created The Fat Squad, it was to satirize America’s obsession with weight control, and consumer excess. To see a law firm steal it and call it comedy? That’s not just plagiarism. That’s malpractice. Artistic malpractice.” —Joey Skaggs, Satirist-Still-At-Large
CONCLUSION
The Fat Squad doesn’t forgive. The Fat Squad doesn’t forget. And if Morgan & Morgan thinks they can out-satire Joey Skaggs… well, let’s just say the Court of Public Opinion is always in session, and the jury is already laughing.
Prefiguring Banksy’s latest Royal Courts of Justice mural depicting a judge attacking a protester, are centuries of art history where works have been censored or edited.
It could hardly be more brutal in its depiction of the administration of judicial might: a judge, arm raised, wielding a makeshift weapon, delivers his ruling, blow by blow, on the body of the accused, who lies at his feet. No, I’m not talking about Banksy’s recent (and rapidly erased) mural, which the street artist sprayed onto the side of the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 7 September. Banksy’s work, which satirically depicted an English judge in traditional wig and gown, pummelling a prone protester with his gavel as splatters of blood became the very message emblazoned on the blank placard that the protester carried, was partially eradicated by authorities three days later.
