Artwork Description
Covid No 19- Orange Limited Edition Archival Pigment Print on 290gsm MOAB Fine Art Paper by Graffiti Pop Art and Street Artist Denial.
2021 Signed & Numbered Limited Edition of 19 Orange Covid19 Chanel Hand Sanitizer Virus Variant. Numbered, Signed, Stamped on Reverse Archival Pigment Print on MOAB Fine Art Paper 290 GSM Size 18" x 24"
Denial’s COVID No. 19 Orange: Consumerism, Fear, and Satire in Street Pop Art
Denial’s COVID No. 19 Orange exemplifies the collision of public crisis and luxury branding through the lens of Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork. Created in 2021 during the height of global pandemic anxiety, this 18 x 24 inch archival pigment print was produced on 290gsm MOAB fine art paper in a limited edition of 19. Each piece is hand-signed, numbered, and stamped on the reverse, reinforcing its exclusivity. At the center of the composition is a reimagined Chanel No. 5 perfume bottle, transformed into a hand sanitizer labeled COVID No. 19. Set against a bright orange background, the image invites immediate visual engagement while delivering sharp cultural critique. The bottle’s glassy elegance, chrome pump top, and minimalist white label echo the design cues of high-end fashion advertisements. Yet the label’s altered wording—replacing perfume with sanitizer, Paris with pandemic—twists the luxurious into the absurd. The reference to Chanel speaks to aspirations of sophistication and wealth, but Denial weaponizes that symbolism to comment on the commodification of fear. In this world, even a deadly virus is repackaged as a designer product. The hand sanitizer becomes a fashion accessory, fetishized through design while ignoring the broader human cost beneath its surface.
Graffiti Logic Meets Capitalist Irony
Denial, a Canadian street artist known for appropriating advertising language and luxury branding, uses graphic clarity and humor as a tool for subversion. His work often draws from corporate visual codes—clean typography, product rendering, billboard color schemes—but repurposes them with anti-capitalist intent. In COVID No. 19 Orange, the weapon of critique is the illusion of desirability. The orange backdrop evokes urgency and alertness, much like a hazard sign or emergency broadcast screen, while also standing in contrast to the cool minimalism of the bottle. The effect is both playful and jarring. This kind of satire aligns with graffiti’s traditional role as anti-establishment communication. While the piece itself is produced with fine art materials and gallery-grade printing methods, its message functions as cultural graffiti—tagging corporate aesthetics with disruptive truths. The slickness of the image mimics the very systems it critiques, blurring the line between participation and protest. Viewers are pulled into the illusion of glamour before recognizing its underlying emptiness.
Street Pop Art as Pandemic-Era Social Commentary
The use of the term COVID No. 19 instead of No. 5 cleverly mimics both pharmaceutical naming conventions and fashion industry branding. This linguistic mirroring is central to the piece’s impact, reinforcing how marketing language infiltrates even the most tragic aspects of public life. The pandemic is not just a health crisis—it’s rebranded, resold, and reimagined through consumer lenses. The art object, in this case, doubles as a time capsule for an era defined by both panic and product. COVID No. 19 Orange encapsulates the essence of Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork by leveraging familiar cultural symbols to confront uncomfortable realities. Denial does not paint the virus as a biological enemy but as a commodified spectacle. The artist’s reinterpretation of Chanel’s perfume bottle is more than parody—it is a declaration that even catastrophe can be co-opted into a luxury good. The work serves as both a critique of consumer culture and a mirror to the audience that consumes it, asking not just what we’re buying, but what’s being sold
