"What if Only Love Existed" -- Matt Smiley

Original two-panel acrylic painting on canvas, 2024 72" W x 36" H x 2" D (two panels w/ custom handmade wood frame)

Pop Art / One-of-a-kind original with Certificate of Authenticity

The painting was made as a call to end war and guns: What if you couldn't shoot bullets and could only shoot love into the world? It's playful but has a big message, but imagine a world with no fear, no conflict, just pure love. Framed and ready to hang.

ARTIST BIO

Matt Smiley is a Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based artist and filmmaker whose work explores memory, nostalgia, and social justice. His vibrant neo-expressionist and post-pop paintings, built around his signature Smiley motifs, turn familiar icons into symbols of connection and healing. He first earned international recognition as an award-winning filmmaker with Highway of Tears (2015, narrated by Nathan Fillion), a documentary on the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada that premiered at the TIFF Human Rights Watch Film Festival. This was followed by For Love (2022, narrated by Shania Twain), which examined the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in Canada's foster care system. His paintings are held in private collections across North America and Europe. He has exhibited alongside Ed Ruscha, James Turrell, and Shepard Fairey, created the public mural Blocs of Love at The Bloc in Downtown Los Angeles, and shown work at the 1 Hotel and the Mondrian Los Angeles. Smiley is also a dedicated philanthropist, having supported benefit auctions for UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, LIFT Communities, Tina Knowles-Lawson's WACO gala, the Race to Erase MS gala hosted by Kathy Hilton, and environmental causes including TreePeople.