Donald Trump Election Day (November 8, 2016)

MASTERWORKS — Presidential Performance Studies

Created during the cultural upheaval surrounding the 2016 United States presidential election, Donald Trump Election Day stands as one of the most historically significant works from Brent Ray Fraser’s performance archive. Measuring an imposing 84 x 108 inches, the monumental portrait emerged through a series of live painting performances, political interventions, and large-scale action painting events that merged spectacle, satire, endurance, media culture, and Fraser’s controversial Brush Stroke Technique into a single work.

Produced live on election night during a collaboration with Daily Hive and Hive Labs, the painting evolved in real time before a large online audience awaiting the announcement of the next President of the United States. Surrounded by American and Canadian iconography inside Fraser’s studio, the portrait became both artwork and performance, documenting a charged political moment as it unfolded. The work culminated in a dramatic red paint intervention cascading across the completed face, transforming the image into a visual record of political anxiety, outrage, media spectacle, and cultural division.

Unlike traditional portraiture, Fraser approached the painting as a physical event rather than a static image. Constructed through his signature Brush Stroke Technique and full-body mark-making process, the work fuses gestural abstraction with representational painting, allowing the artist’s movements, physicality, and performance actions to remain embedded within the surface itself. The resulting image oscillates between portrait, protest, performance documentation, and contemporary history painting.

The stark contrast of black, white, and blood-red paint amplifies the emotional intensity of the composition. Aggressive drips, splashes, and sweeping gestures collide with controlled portraiture, creating a visual language that reflects the volatility of the political climate while showcasing Fraser’s ability to merge theatrical performance with large-scale image making.

The painting belongs to Fraser’s ongoing Presidential Performance Studies, a body of work examining celebrity politics, nationalism, masculinity, media manipulation, and the transformation of political figures into mass cultural mythology. As one of the most widely viewed and documented works from this period, Donald Trump Election Day occupies a unique position within Fraser’s career, representing the intersection of performance art, contemporary politics, and his internationally recognized body-based painting practice.

This masterwork originated through a live performance and remains part of a larger body of documented political actions, interventions, and performance works. To view the original creation process and archival footage surrounding this historic painting, visit the Moving Image Archive at BrentRayFraser.com/pages/moving-image-archive.

Acrylic on canvas, executed through the artist’s Brush Stroke Technique.

Size: 84 x 108 in

(Frame not included)