Toronto artist creates portrait of Trudeau & Ford, Canadians seem to approve

A Toronto artist who has created work for Drake and Fred Van Vleet in the past has created a less-than-flattering depiction of Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford as clowns.

Amer Sal Mohammed, or Amer SM is the artist behind the piece he has titled "Welcome to Canada." Trudeau is depicted as Joaquin Pheonix's Joker (with a speech bubble noting that he's speaking moistly) whereas Ford is depicted as McDonald's mascot Ronald Macdonald. The latter's bubble says "COVID-pounded with a side of lockdown," a jab at the recent restrictions implemented by the Ontario premier, who has seen his approval rating plummet.

The starting price for bidding is set at $1,000 with no maximum, it will be a unique NFT with the highest bidder receiving copy 1 of 1. As a NFT (non-fungible tokens), the piece is not a physical artwork but is more like a monetized digital artefact. Think Bitcoin. This year, a NFT of a digital house produced by a Toronto artist sold for 600,000 CAD.

It's not the city's first foray into absurd NFT's, with someone in Toronto having bought a digital house for $600,000 just over a month ago.

"NFTs can really be anything digital (such as drawings, music, your brain downloaded and turned into an AI), but a lot of the current excitement is around using the tech to sell digital art," explains The Verge.

"You can copy a digital file as many times as you want, including the art that's included with an NFT. But NFTs are designed to give you something that can't be copied: ownership of the work.... To put it in terms of physical art collecting: anyone can buy a Monet print. But only one person can own the original."