Hunter Biden is embarking on new creative ventures after taking up painting over the last year, a hobby that’s distracted him from the national spotlight the election put on him over his business deals.
According to Page Six, the 50-year-old son of President-elect Joe Biden is in the midst of signing a deal to be represented as an artist in the Georges Berges Gallery in New York City and preparing for a solo art show next year.
The foreign business dealings of Hunter Biden, who is facing a recently disclosed federal tax investigation, has been the subject of constant attacks by President Trump and his allies. In fact, Trump asking Ukraine’s president to announce investigations into the Bidens, related in part to Hunter’s employment at Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings when his father was serving as vice president in the Obama administration, led to his impeachment.
Joe Biden has defended his son all along. His transition team released statements last week confirming that federal investigators are looking into Hunter Biden’s taxes. “President-elect Biden is deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger,” his staff said.
When asked by Fox News’s Peter Doocy on Wednesday if he is confident Hunter did nothing wrong, Joe Biden replied: “I am confident.”
Joe Biden has sought to distance his incoming presidency from his family’s business dealings, repeatedly asserting that he was never privy to those affairs, deflecting claims made by Tony Bobulinksi, Hunter Biden’s former business partner, in the final days before the election.
Hunter Biden revealed his artistic ambitions earlier this year in a New York Times feature in which he discussed his paintings, which usually feature blown ink abstractions.
Biden talked about how his Los Angeles-based art studio kept him “sane” from media attention and deterred him from going back to unhealthy habits like turning to drugs, given that he battled addiction for years.
“I want to protect this place,” Biden said about his studio. “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.”
