Sebastian Magnani’s Fresh Meat (2025, C-Print, Archival Pigment Print) is a sharp, ironic composition that fuses pop culture iconography with biting social commentary. A figure styled unmistakably in the image of Marilyn Monroe—her platinum curls, red lips, and flowing white dress instantly recognizable—stands beneath a bold red sign that reads FRESH MEAT. Clutching a bouquet of candy-red hearts, she gazes away from the viewer, her glamour undercut by the cold geometry of the beige storefront wall and the harsh midday shadows that frame her.

Magnani’s staging here is deliberate: the work juxtaposes the manufactured ideal of femininity with the commodification implied by the signage above. The Monroe archetype—long emblematic of desire, spectacle, and vulnerability—is transformed into both subject and object, a symbol of how media and consumer culture reduce icons to consumable products. The hearts in her hands, symbols of love and devotion, feel fragile and ironic against the blunt commercial text overhead.

In keeping with his wider practice, Magnani balances humor, critique, and cinematic style. Fresh Meat destabilizes familiar imagery, provoking viewers to reconsider cultural myths of beauty, desire, and commodification in a society where icon and commodity are often indistinguishable.