Double Walker Elvis

Double Walker Elvis (Diptych)

Artist 

Aaron Sheppard

96 x 72 inches (96 x 36 inches each) 

Acrylic, Spray Paint, Glassine, Tennis Balls on Canvas

About the Artwork 

In this diptych, the artist reimagines one of pop culture’s most immortalized icons through the lens of decline, parody, and tenderness. Channeling the unmistakable visual language of Andy Warhol’s Elvis screen prints—complete with dual pistols, parted lips, and hip-thrusting bravado—the work confronts the myth of eternal youth with the quiet inevitability of aging.

Painted on two tall wood panels, the figures mirror the bold, flattened aesthetic of Warhol’s 1960s work, but the vibrant pop palette is interrupted by a dose of realism: each Elvis now stands behind a physical walker. These metal walkers, affixed directly to the surface and even adorned with tennis balls, are not ironic props—they’re anchors that ground the fantasy in a corporeal reality.

The gesture is humorous, but it stings. These are no longer the hips that shook the world. The iconic gun-toting stance is intact, but there’s an undertone of struggle, of performance clinging to relevance. The once-lethal cool becomes theatrical, even tragic, in the presence of assistive devices.

The artist’s choice to paint on wood adds weight to the message. Wood, unlike canvas, doesn’t flex or move—it bears. It decays. It creaks. It mirrors the body, especially one that has endured fame, obsession, and cultural saturation. The drips and smudges in the paintwork further suggest a loosening of the myth, as if the image is melting, fading, or losing its grip.

This work doesn’t mock its subject. Instead, it insists that even the brightest stars are not immune to the passage of time. In merging Pop Art’s seductive repetition with the materiality of aging, the artist offers a portrait of a legend not as a statue—but as a man, propped up, still holding on, still performing, and finally, undeniably, growing old.

Price: $8,000