Artist Rob Pruitt is showing as art something I might have done on The Wow Report if I had thought of it first. (I sort of did. Along the same lines, in 2012 I created a prototype for art magazine called THEM, turning artworld figures into celebrities. Swear!)
At Art Basel Unlimited this year Pruitt’s is pairing pictures of the art world’s most powerful players with their celebrity look-alikes.
It was started as a project on the artist’s Instagram and is now gathered in a book, called Rob Pruitt’s Official Art World/Celebrity Look-Alikes.
The series also comes with some gallery history: a decade ago, Pruitt’s dealer, Gavin Brown showed art-world photographer and Wowlebrity Patrick McMullan’s society pics.
Brown also shared a booth at Frieze New York a few years back with his own celebrity doppelgänger, Mark Ruffalo, who incidentally contributes a text to Pruitt’s new book. They are buddies.
Pruitt was ruthless with some of these matches but check out his look-alike, he wasn’t kind. Btw, RuPaul‘s look-alike (and vice versa) is handsome artist Mark Bradford.
Here are a few snaps of the series but you can see a lot more on ArtNet News.

Artist Mark Bradford and RuPaul

Artists Space director Jay Sanders and American Pie‘s Jason Biggs

Artist Ryan Trecartin and Jimmy Neutron

Artist Bjarne Melgaard and the Thing from the Fantastic Four

Artist Dan Colen and actor Harrison Ford

Art dealer Gavin Brown and actor and anti-fracking activist Mark Ruffalo

Art John Baldessari and Papa Smurf

The Fondation Beyeler’s Thomas Keller and Mike Myers as Dr. Evil

Art collector Aby Rosen and Louis XVI

Art dealer Larry Gagosian and actor Bob Einstein

Artist Yayoi Kusama and Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element

Art scion Harry Brant and actress Winona Ryder

Artist Alex Katz and Krusty Krab proprietor Squidward Tentacles

Artist Urs Fischer and artist Michael Madsen

Art collector François Pinault and US Attorney General Jeff Sessions

Damien Hirst and Bruce the shark from Finding Nemo

Artist Marina Abramovic and a brick wall

Artist Rob Pruitt and Bill Hader as “Saturday Night Live”‘s Stefon
(Photos, Rob Pruitt; via ArtNet News)