Artwork Description
Holy Grails Yeezys Papyrus- Top 2-Color Hand-Pulled Diamond Dust Limited Edition Silkscreen Print on Egyptian Papyrus Paper by Marwan Shahin Rare Street Art Famous Pop Artwork Artist.
2022 Signed & Numbered Limited Edition of 10 Size 14.25x10 Golden Kayne West Yeezy Shoe Stylized With Egyptian Elements From The Top Custom Papyrus Paper.
Marwan Shahin – Holy Grails Yeezys Papyrus: Street Pop Art Meets Ancient Iconography
Holy Grails Yeezys Papyrus – Top is a standout 2022 silkscreen print by Egyptian street pop art provocateur Marwan Shahin. Created using hand-pulled screen printing techniques and finished with shimmering diamond dust, the artwork is laid onto custom Egyptian papyrus paper, bringing together millennia of symbolism in one singularly modern object. This piece measures 14.25 by 10 inches and is part of a hyper-limited edition of only 10, each signed and numbered by the artist. Here, Shahin transforms the instantly recognizable silhouette of Kanye West's Yeezy sneaker into a visual artifact worthy of pharaonic reverence. By rendering the Yeezy Boost in a horizontal, top-down layout and adorning it with symbols of power—spikes, chains, stars, ankhs, and architectural references—Shahin elevates a streetwear commodity to mythic status. The shoe’s sole becomes a canvas for intricate design reminiscent of royal cartouches or tomb carvings. Instead of simple branding or commercial logos, the surface is etched with elements that echo weaponry, jewelry, and religious motifs, asserting the sneaker as a 21st-century relic of power, influence, and mass devotion.
Translating Fame into Folklore Through Material & Symbol
Printing on papyrus is not just an aesthetic decision—it is a deliberate cultural subversion. Papyrus has historically served as the medium for sacred texts, royal decrees, and religious scripture. Shahin uses this ancient material to canonize Kanye West's Yeezy as a modern artifact of worship, layered with irony and cultural observation. With the addition of diamond dust shimmering over golden ink, the artist challenges viewers to consider the fetishization of celebrity merchandise as a new kind of ritual object—one that commands loyalty and faith on a mass scale. The decision to present the Yeezy from a top-down view strips away personal identity and makes the object itself the subject of devotion. The foot is absent, and what remains is the symbol. The artwork questions how consumer culture and media turn material goods into vessels of aspiration, reverence, and even divine projection. It turns the sneaker into a sarcophagus for modern myth-making.
Marwan Shahin’s Expanding Pyramid of Meaning
Holy Grails Yeezys Papyrus follows in the conceptual footsteps of Shahin’s earlier Yeezus Papyrus, continuing his exploration of the blurred boundaries between icon, idol, and object. Where Yeezus Papyrus humanized the celebrity behind the myth, this piece abstracts the persona completely, focusing on the consumer symbol itself. The stylization of the sneaker not only references the physical aesthetics of hip-hop culture and luxury fashion, but also mimics ancient hieroglyphic language—each star, chain, and line carrying layered meaning, both literal and symbolic. Shahin's ability to synthesize pop culture iconography with historically grounded symbolism continues to mark his work as culturally critical and visually striking. His choice to restrict the edition to just 10 units reinforces the idea of exclusivity—a commentary on the scarcity-driven hype culture that fuels both the sneaker and art markets. At the same time, his craftsmanship and regional heritage elevate the sneaker into an object of ritual, blurring lines between the sacred and the material.
A New Graffiti Mythos Cast in Gold
This work encapsulates Shahin’s growing influence in the evolution of street pop art and graffiti artwork. From the scroll-like texture of the papyrus to the gilded embellishments that frame the sneaker’s silhouette, everything about Holy Grails Yeezys Papyrus is deliberate in its challenge to commodification, cultural symbolism, and modern-day idolatry. Shahin fuses the vocabulary of graffiti with the reverence of ancient relics, positioning the Yeezy not merely as footwear, but as a cultural totem—one entangled in luxury, aspiration, rebellion, and digital-age devotion. In elevating the sneaker into a sacred image, Shahin immortalizes the fleeting trends of consumer culture within a medium that was once the record-keeper of ancient civilization. This transformation—of mass-produced streetwear into modern scripture—cements Holy Grails Yeezys Papyrus as both an artistic feat and a philosophical mirror.
