It looks like Hunter Biden has pivoted to a career in fine art

When regular folks pick up painting or another artistic hobby, they might aspire to sell some of their work to friends on Instagram (if they’re any good). When Hunter Biden left lobbying and dubbed himself a fine artist, he set his sights a bit higher. I guess when you’re the middle-aged son of the president-elect, they let you show your mediocre paintings at high-end art galleries.

That’s right, guys: Biden-the-younger recently inked a deal to be represented by the ritzy Georges Bergès Gallery in New York City’s SoHo, according to Page Six. A solo show of his work is being planned for next year.

The world first learned about Hunter Biden’s art practice back in February, when The New York Times did a studio visit with the emerging artist — in his converted pool house in the Hollywood Hills. Biden divulged that painting keeps him grounded in his battle against substance abuse: “It keeps me away from people and places where I shouldn’t be,” he said.

The paper described his art as “colorful works of decorative abstraction — psychedelic florals and ethereal patterns that look like nature viewed through a microscope, leaning toward the surreal.” Pulitzer Prize-winning New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz was less forgiving when he described Hunter’s work as, “generic post-zombie formalism illustration.”

Whatever funds Biden pulls in from the sale of his art will undoubtedly be subject to interest. Remember when Donald J. Trump was impeached, less than a year ago? (How is that possible? It seems so long ago.) Well, as you might recall, Hunter Biden was at the center of that scandal, since Trump phoned Ukraine asking them to investigate the incoming president’s son — the act that ultimately got him impeached. And just last week, Hunter revealed that the Justice Department is scrutinizing his taxes from his time holding a lucrative seat on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company.

Unlike political figures-turned-artists before him (never forget that George W. Bush paints too, y’all) it looks like Hunter’s pivot to a career in fine art is at least partly a way of keeping his head down as his father heads to the White House. As he explained to the Times, “The one thing I have left is my art. It’s the one thing they can’t take away from me or conflate with anything else.”