A few weeks back, you may or may not have seen the controversial image on the cover of German magazine, Der Spiegel. It showed a cartoon version of Trump having beheaded the Statue of Liberty. Whether or not you agree or disagree with this portrayal, you cannot deny that is an eyecatching and poweful piece of art. Artnet got in touch with the man behind the cover - we've included some extracts below. 

"The man behind the powerful image is freelance artist Edel Rodriguez, a Cuban political refugee who escaped Castro’s autocratic regime in the 1980s."

“I was born in Havana, Cuba, and I came to the United States in 1980 when I was nine years old. It was a political refugee situation, so I became an American,” Rodriguez told artnet News in a telephone interview. Rodriguez said that he disagreed with the Trump administration’s executive order banning citizens of seven predominantly Islamic countries from traveling to the United States."

“I think [Trump] has a really warped and simplistic view of immigration. From my story and other people’s stories, I can say that its an issue that’s much more complicated...” 

Read full article on artnet here.