Man stunned after finding a painting of his living room on display at art gallery: 'This can't be real'

Editor's note: This article was originally published on March 3, 2023. It has since been updated.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how shocked would you be to find a painting of the inside of your house at an art gallery? 10, maybe? So was a TikTok user Josh. In a video posted on his channel @ps4homescreenmusic1, he can be seen talking in front of a green screen showing an Instagram post from the gallery Unit London of a woman looking at a painting that looks exactly like his living room. 

As shown in the painting, his living room is sparsely furnished with a rug, a folding chair, a TV and a gaming set on the floor. He says in the video, "For some reason, they have an oil painting of my living room, but like, this doesn’t look real. This can’t be real.” "If you live near Unit London and you could give me a picture or video to confirm this, I'll really appreciate it," Josh adds in the video.

He then goes on to show the original picture of his living room which has a BTS poster on the wall behind the TV. “This is the actual picture of my living room. Whoever did it cut off the BTS poster, which is funny as hell, but you know, whatever,” Josh says in the video.

His video garnered more than 700,000 views and is captioned, "#greenscreen." User @s_presco confirmed in the comments about the painting. "I study art in London and can confirm this is real! It’s in a new exhibition by the artist Mauro Martinez," she wrote. "The artist satirizes contemporary art through internet culture & the reference imagery for the paintings in the show came from memes of gaming setups," the TikTok user added. The art exhibition that Josh is talking about is called, "Rate My Setup" and is going on from January 31 to March 4 at Unit London, according to the gallery's website. 

"Inspired by the online subreddit thread, RateMySetup, where users post images of their gaming systems, Martinez’s exhibition of the same name explores the lengths that people will go to in order to stay online. While always maintaining a characteristic sense of humor, RateMySetup uncovers our dependence on convenience and our capacity to innovate, allowing space for both criticism and reflection," explains the artist's work. 

Daily Dot reported that the artist might have got a photo of Josh's living room through Twitter when he posted it two years ago, captioning it as "funny ass living room" and it went viral. User @babypoppytroll1 commented on Josh's video, "This picture was the Mona Lisa of Twitter for some period of time."

Many users want the artist to pay his dues to Josh. @crayonmachine commented, "Don’t sue, reach out and try to work an agreement of the business. Show love, they’ll show it back." @cantaloupelettucemarry commented, "If the artist makes money off that I feel like they at least owe you a couch." @harrystylesbabymomma commented, "They should’ve included the bts poster it adds sizzle to it." @tiddie_witch commented, "I feel like they should send it to you as art for your wall." @lookingglassbrat commented, "You should get a free ticket to London to see the show. Do press and meet some Brits. ❤️"