Artist who taped a banana to the wall returns with critique on US gun culture

The controversial Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan — who once taped a banana to the wall and sold it for a fortune — is back with an apparent commentary on gun violence in the US.

The conceptual prankster coated steel panels in 24-carat gold and blasted each of them with a 12-gauge shotgun, in a display that The Guardian called “grotesquely, abhorrently violent” and “ludicrously, grossly opulent” — or, in other words, “classic Cattelan.”

While the work is ostensibly a critique of gun culture, Cattelan told The Guardian that “it’s not the main subject,” adding, “I like works that are open to interpretation.”