NEW YORK, NY (May 2025) — This spring, New York’s Chelsea Gallery District becomes the launchpad for a dystopian spectacle masquerading as a campaign rollout. Opposing Visions: The Trump Era in Art unveils its provocative centerpiece: Project 29, a monumental sculpture by Daniel Edwards that dares to imagine a third term for Donald Trump—not through ballots, but through biotech, belief, and brute spectacle.

 

Edwards’s grotesque yet mesmerizing creation features Trump’s severed head, preserved in a translucent life-support bubble, affixed to the chest of a dual-headed cyborg hybrid of Elon Musk and RFK Jr. This hulking figure—part flesh, part machine—embodies the bizarre fusion of authoritarian allure, tech worship, and a presidency that refuses to fade.

 

Project 29 draws on Musk’s real-world ventures—Neuralink, SpaceX, and the Optimus robot—to envision a Trump presidency not sanctioned by the Constitution, but sustained by fringe science, techno-utopian delusion, and public belief in its promise. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assumes the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services, portrayed as uniquely “qualified” to oversee the preservation and vitality of the artificially sustained presidential head. “The work explores what happens when a presidency pushes beyond legal, ethical, and rational limits by any means necessary—and how a willing public embraces even the most extreme measures to keep their leader in power,” explains Edwards.

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The biomechanical figure is clad in a sculpted harness and high-tech thong styled after the Tesla logo, with its gleaming posterior boldly displayed. “I sculpted the gluteal forms with the same reverence one might bring to the Lincoln Memorial—muscle memory, I suppose,” Edwards says. “Regrettably, I may have given the monster just enough majesty to win a primary.” Among younger audiences, the figure’s physique might simply be described as having a “gyatt.”

 

Project 29 serves as a stark emblem of the present—a testament to the unsettling reality that the dystopia once feared has begun to unfold. In its outstretched hand, the Musk/RFK Jr. hybrid grips an American flag reimagined as a spear—no longer a symbol of unity, but a relic of a fractured nation. Referencing the flag-wielding intruders of January 6, 2021, the pose evokes a dystopian nationalism turned inward, where sacred symbols are no longer upheld but brandished, hollowed, and weaponized.

 

At the figure’s feet stands a ‘resurrected’ Peanut the squirrel, referencing a 2024 incident in which New York officials euthanized a squirrel suspected of rabies. MAGA outrage of government overreach—and a viral post from Musk—transformed the animal into an unlikely folk hero. For Post-Internet artist XVALA, also featured in the exhibition, Peanut became “part monument, part meme, part relic.”

 

XVALA’s contribution—a gold-plated bronze MAGA hat designed for ceremonial display atop the Resolute Desk—offers a reverent counterpoint. “It’s not a joke,” he insists. “It’s the most culturally significant headwear of the 21st century. It deserves preservation, not parody.” Where Edwards skewers Trump’s afterlife with dystopian satire, XVALA treats the MAGA movement as revolutionary heritage. For him, this exhibition is not parody—it is prophecy. Project 29 marks, in XVALA’s view, the true launch of Trump’s third-term campaign. Edwards, by contrast, relishes the opportunity to ridicule that very notion in sculptural form. The tension between the two animates the exhibit’s volatile core.

 

Providing a grounding presence is artist Jarva Land, whose pen-and-ink courtroom sketches—drawn during Trump’s ongoing legal battles—capture the raw theater of justice. “I draw to see, not to judge,” Land says. Her work, restrained yet piercing, offers an unfiltered view of a nation on trial.

 

Opposing Visions is a kaleidoscope of ideological extremes—from far-left critique to far-right veneration—united by a refusal to offer easy answers. It challenges viewers to confront the mechanics of power: how it seduces, divides, and survives through spectacle and symbol.

 

We invite you to experience Opposing Visions: The Trump Era in Art at the Iconoclast Room, located in the West Chelsea Building at 526 W 26th Street, Room 511, New York, NY. The exhibition runs from May 26–31, 2025, with special events throughout the week, including a sneak preview on Tuesday, a press opportunity on Wednesday morning, and an Artists’ Reception on Friday evening from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. Join us to explore this provocative and timely body of work in the heart of Chelsea’s gallery district.

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For press inquiries, interview requests, or additional information, please contact us at iconoclastroom@gmail.com or call (646) 657-8028. Our artists are available for interviews, panels, and public appearances. We look forward to welcoming you.