ABOUT

XVALA is a provocative artist known for his transformative use of compelling celebrity artifacts and images. A graduate of Langston University in Oklahoma, XVALA has significantly influenced the Post-Internet art movement with his Fear Google and No Delete series. These projects delve into the effects of the internet on identity, privacy, and information dissemination.

His collection, transformation, and public display of hacked private images challenges the boundaries between online interactions and the real world, and the controversy and backlash surrounding such displays adds an interactive layer to the art. More recently, XVALA's ongoing Meme Ranch project has examined how meme culture, both digital and physical, permeates society.

XVALA's work most often lies at the intersection of art and technology, appropriating spaces, materials, and subject matter that others have overlooked as artistic tools. He is known for his Fear Google campaign, which targeted the unavoidable loss of privacy in modern life, and he made international headlines No Delete, an exhibition stemming from the release of nude celebrity photos that were made public by hackers, again showcasing our loss of control in the Internet Age. He called his use of these types of images "disruptive innovation".

XVALA standing in front of a Google van at the Googleplex, Mountain View, CA, August 2018

Due to his tendency toward appropriation art, XVALA is often compared to Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Richard Prince. He also has been compared to Banksy for his occasional forays into street art.