Rob Pruitt’s Official Art World / Celebrity Look- Alikes translates a widespread media trope to the secluded world of contemporary art by pairing images of widely known members in the art community with their celebrity counterparts. The project, which began on Instagram, takes its physical form as diptychs on canvas to create an affectionate and poignant commentary on identity, meaning, and community established through shared visual culture. Pruitt relies on social media and collaborative interactions to twist everyday mainstream conventions. In the same vein as Spy Magazine’s ‘Separated at Birth’ or US Weekly’s ‘Who Wore It Best?’ Pruitt’s Look-Alikes construct an uncanny experience. Chronicling the full series to date is a publication that includes pairings of look-alikes, alongside the Instagram commentary they inspired and an interview with Gavin Brown and (his celebrity counterpart) Mark Ruffalo. As Pruitt describes the project: ‘The Celebrity Look-Alikes are about the Duchampian ease of making a portrait by pointing at a person’s doppelgänger. They’re about the post-Picasso fascination with artists as personalities. They’re about how John Baldessari looks just like Papa Smurf.’
