A hip-hop Artist from New York has recently put his art one display in Tokyo. Hip-hop may be controversial, but there are other things that can curl people's hair more than that: hip-hop artists as Christian icons in paintings. Personally, I think that this is not a wise thing to do. Not only would it offend people, but it places ordinary people in the place of religious deities. It is equivalent to drawing a picture of George W. Bush, and calling it God.
I am no expert on Christianity, but I think that when Jesus is depicted in art he's not supposed to be any specific person. Taking hip-hop artists, presidents, or anybody and depicting them as Jesus or any other religious icon is a supposed to mean something about that person in relation to the religion. If the depiction is supposed to mean that Tupac is Jesus or a Buddha, then that is morally wrong because it is against religious teaching.
Tom Sanford is unquestionably talented, but I am not sure what message he is trying to deliver through his work. I am further confused by his website (I think it's his website, and I cannot see any of the pictures for some reason). It appears that he does not know about the real conditions of the various ethnic and racial groups in America in the past and present.
As more people become familiar with his work, more will comment and hopefully his work won't be taboo in America.
