Ah, celebrity artists. From Johnny Depp to Robbie Williams, we've seen plenty of actors and musicians try picking up a brush in recent years – with varying results. The latest is Ed Sheeran, and while his splattery pieces don't rank him as one of the worst celebrity artists, their uncanny resemblance to those of an art legend is certainly raising eyebrows.
Sheeran has announced he is selling a series of paintings titled 'Cosmic Carpark' to raisie funds for his Ed Sheeran Foundation, which aims to provide music education for children. The paintings will be available exclusively at London gallery HENI.
Ed Sheeran’s painting journey began in 2019 after his record-breaking Divide tour ended, reads the gallery website. "Using his spare time to create original artworks, in 2020, he used one of his early creations as the official artwork for his single Afterglow. Skip forward to 2025, the Cosmic Carpark Paintings release offers the public their first chance of collecting his original artworks and edition prints. Inspired by celestial patterns, and in-keeping with his well-documented, expressionist splash painting style, Sheeran painted his debut collection in a disused carpark in London last year in-between the international leg of his Mathematics Tour."
But the similarity of the paintings to the work of Jackson Pollock hasn't gone unnoticed. As the Guardian puts it, "While he has successfully defeated plagiarism claims regarding his songs, he would have no defence from the Jackson Pollock estate."
And plenty of social media users have shared the sentiment. "Ed Sheeran's music is unique and phenomenal. But copying Pollock ain't it," one X user laments. He has money, fame, name already through the music, massive art studio built and massive canvases to copy Pollock? and HENI is promoting? Got it! This shit is exactly why I lost faith in art scene." Another simply adds, "What a load of (Jackson) Pollocks."
Indeed, if there's anything we've noticed from the recent backlash to these celebrity artists, it's that there's a very specific moment in which they draw the ire of the internet: when they put the art on sale. While we've nothing against celebs, or anyone, dabbling in producing art, it's when their profile earns those works wall space in established galleries that it can get a little, you know, rankling. Still, at least in Sheeran's case, it's all for a good cause.
