Artichoke Trust, the art charity responsible for pinning up the “Hey Straight White Men, Pass the Power!” posters across London, has decided it’s finally time to justify the artistic merits of its latest thought-provoking work. A good idea given the taxpayer has given the trust a cool £3.1 million since 2018…

Following Guido’s story revealing the figures yesterday, and after Tory MP Neil O’Brien called the posters “divisive, racist crap“, the Artichoke Trust’s CEO and artistic director gave this statement to the Independent:

“The 10 artworks that feature in this inaugural edition of The Gallery raise critical and urgent questions about the society we live in, and I’d like to thank Neil O’Brien MP and others for starting the very conversations this project sought to generate.We asked artists from around the world to respond to the theme ‘Straight White Male’. The selected artworks are nuanced and thoughtful, covering everything from male identity and power to menstruation and manspreading. We’re excited to see these conversations starting: they are much needed.”

Nothing says “nuanced and thoughtful” like a plain, monochrome poster, screaming about straight white men, that looks like it was made on PowerPoint. Maybe one day it will hang in the Louvre. Our very own publicly-funded Mona Lisa…