Ron English’s Abraham Obama

Pop iconoclast Ron English paints, infiltrates, reinvents and satirizes modern culture and its mainstream visual iconography on canvas, in song, and directly onto hundreds of pirated billboards. English exists spiritually somewhere between a cartoon Abbie Hoffman and a grown-up, real-life Bart Simpson, delivering a steady stream of customized imagery laden with strong sociopolitical undertones, adolescent boy humor, subversive media savvy, and Dali-meets-Disney technique. Dedicated to finding the sublime in the everyday and breaking the momentum of the didactic approach to art and life, English offers up an alternative universe where nothing is sacred, everything is subverted, and there is always room for a little good-natured fun. Link

Made by Monsters & Ron English continues their collaborative efforts with the new series of “Grins” Vinyl figures. This time around featuring a 10″ tall Dinosaur with a massive T-Rex skull.

Andy Warhol once said, ““I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment.’” Ron English, in collaboration with metal experts Fully Visual, is happy to oblige!
Figment, edition of 15 in Bronze and White Bronze, stands 7.5” tall and features an iconic Warholian wispy wigged skull atop a turtle-necked tombstone. Available now at FullyVisual.com.

Ron English painting a massive version of Picasso’s “Guernica” at Medicine Agency gallery for the release of his Mandala Grin puzzle being put out by ToTT Global (tottglobal.com).

From Medicine Agency on Vimeo.

Designer game and novelty company Tools of the Trade was releasing their second toy, the Ron English “Mandala Grin” Jigsaw Puzzle. Medicine Agency directed and edited this short commercial and syndicated it to a large network of blogs and publications.

From Medicine Agency on Vimeo.

BOSTON — Barack Obama is looking a lot like Abraham Lincoln; at least in one work of art.Artist Ron English was commissioned by Gallery XIV to paint a mural as part of a large show about art and politics.English painted 12 portraits that combine the attributes of Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln. He calls the artwork “Abraham Obama.”“So it’s 12 total images. It’s basically based on 12 colors, and the colors move through the face in one direction and move through the background in the opposite direction,” Will Kerr, Gallery XIV Boston, said.The work of art was meant to get people talking, but it is not the conversation that is stirring the controversy. After the mural was legally installed, the gallery’s phone began ringing off the hook with people upset that the image was showing up all over the South End.English had given away smaller posters of the mural, but they were plastered on streets, outside restaurants and even on private homes.“The image was put on people’s private property, and no matter how you look at it, that vandalism,” Kerr said.
But as the mural continues to turn heads, the gallery is asking everyone to take the posters down.

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