Checking In on Adrien Brody’s Art Career

ICYMI, two-time Academy Award winner Adrien Brody makes art, and if creative output is any window into the brain, his paintings have only left me more confused about what in the hell could possibly be happening in there.

I would describe Brody’s art as white-boy-who-just-found-out-about-Basquiat-via-an-Urban-Outfitters-T-shirt. But if that’s your thing, you came to the right place! For his most recent work, Brody is embracing corporate America (like a true artist) by partnering with the chicken-finger fast-food chain Raising Cane’s as his patron. On Monday, Brody unveiled his big ass mural about chicken fingers, and sure, let’s call it art. Nothing matters anyway.

“Cane’s Anthem,” as Brody calls his masterpiece, will reside in the flagship Times Square Global Flagship Cane’s, right next to the restrooms and a ketchup dispenser currently being abused by a Midwestern 9-year-old. You may be thinking…Why would Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody stoop to making wall art for a fast food restaurant in Times Square? Well, apparently, Brody is pals with Raising Cane’s owner and founder, Todd Graves, and the mural was inspired by Todd’s chicken-finger journey. How tender.

“Cane’s Anthem is a vibrant mixed-media collage that was born from admiration and respect for my friend Todd Graves the Owner and Founder of Raising Cane’s,” said Adrien Brody (read: his publicist) in a statement. “Layered with found wheat-paste fragments, torn advertisements, and weathered street ephemera that I have gathered throughout New York City along with the playbill from my Broadway debut in The Fear of 13”—Brody’s show, The Fear of 13, is about a wrongfully convicted inmate on death row, so naturally that would fit into the tableau of chicken-tender history—“the work echoes the grit, perseverance, and entrepreneurial spirit that defines Graves’s journey, the spirit of NYC and an urban aesthetic that has always spoken to me growing up here.” Upon closer look, the mural features torn pages of Graves’s Forbes cover shoot, labradors, Yankees logos, and a shit ton of litter (i.e., “weathered street ephemera”). He nailed the assignment, if the assignment was covering up a blank wall with junk.

.@adrienbrody unveiled his latest piece, “Cane’s Anthem,” for @ToddGraves on the 3rd anniversary of Raising Cane’s Global Flagship in Times Square.⁰⁰“Cane’s Anthem is a vibrant mixed-media collage that was born from admiration and respect for my friend Todd Graves the Owner and… pic.twitter.com/Opj7yUc5dj

— Raising Cane’s (@raisingcanes) June 29, 2026

Last year, Brody displayed a collection of paintings titled “Made in America” that was hard to look at. Still, this stupid painting/collage/graffiti/Warhol wannabe sold at auction for $425,000. DOLLARS.

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If I stare at it too long, I’ll go crazy. Dear God, it’s so stupid.

In a way, Raising Cane’s is the perfect vessel for his art. Loud, guady, clinging to celebrity relevance—fitting for Times Square, too. And I’ll sleep a little easier knowing tiny flecks of Cane’s Sauce are splattering onto his stupid collage every single day.