Apocalypse Now

llma Gore (Brisbane, 1992) is a prominent Australian-American artist whose work focuses on political activism through satire. A self-described gender-fluid futurist, Gore primarily expresses herself through drawing, street art, and body art.

After a turbulent childhood that even led her to live on the streets, Illma Gore began her artistic career as a self-taught artist.

At just 21 years old, the artist rose to prominence in 2013 with her performance Marriage Equality , cycling through Brisbane with the phrase “ My shirt didn’t match my rights ” written on her back in protest against opposition to marriage equality in Australia. In 2015, she presented Tattoo Me , a project in which she turned her body into a collective canvas: for a charitable donation, strangers could tattoo anything on her skin—including absurd and banal phrases or images. Inspired by artists such as Marina Abramović, the project explored bodily autonomy and vulnerability as a form of resistance.

In 2016, Illma Gore’s work became world-renowned after her controversial portrait of Donald Trump, ” Make America Great Again ,” depicting the American leader completely naked and sporting a tiny penis. The work not only caused controversy in the media and society but was also subject to multiple censorships in the United States, resulting in a physical attack on the artist and numerous death threats.

However, this experience didn’t stop Gore from practicing his art. Since the 2016 controversy, he has continued to work on similarly controversial works, such as the toilet lined with Louis Vuitton bags (” Loo-uis Vuitton ,” 2019) or the American flag painted with real blood donated by the public (” Rise Up Thy Young Blood ,” 2017).

Now, with the exhibition “ Apocalypse Now ,” Illma Gore reveals her vision of the end times: a series of fateful events that began in the 20th century and have developed into the current socioeconomic, political, cultural, and military panorama of the world.

The centerpiece of this exhibition, “ Death of Eros ,” is a monumental oil painting measuring over three meters in length that brings together more than 25 political figures from the last two centuries—from Martin Luther King and Queen Elizabeth II to Pope Francis, Stalin, Putin, and Adolf Hitler—depicted as cherubs trapped in a stormy sky. Weeping, violence, and confusion dominate the scene, where the leaders, now grotesque cherubs, face off in an absurd and chaotic battle.

The scene evokes the imagery of the Last Judgment—present in medieval codices such as the Beatus or in Michelangelo’s frescoes—but instead of a judging God or a promise of redemption, what appears is a chorus of powerlessness and political theatricality. Here, the grand historical narratives dissolve into an erratic choreography of floating bodies, where power is shown to be vulnerable and even pathetic.

Far from idealizing her protagonists, Gore reduces them—or elevates them—to deformed mythological caricatures: corpulent, confused cherubs, slapping themselves, crying, or floating aimlessly, as if history had been written by children incarnated in celestial bodies. In this gesture, the artist not only parodies political power, but desacralizes it, stripping it of all spiritual or moral legitimacy.