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

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.

LINK

Photo by Jeff Kallaus

by Caroline Stanley

Free speech and social equality champion Ron English’s Abraham Obama is arguably one of the most recognizable images of the 2008 presidential campaign — second only to his friend Shepard Fairey’s iconic HOPE posters. But did Fairey take his work on a ten-city tour while shooting a documentary about the experience? Nope. English did, though, and the resulting film is like a weird mix of Jackass and a who’s-who of street art’s elite. After the jump, English speaks with Flavorpill about why Boston hates street art, how little money artists really make, and what he’s planning to do with a bunch of paint and 20 cows.

Flavorpill: When did you guys decide to turn the road trip into a documentary? Was that always the plan?

Ron English: No, no. Kevin Chapados — who directed  — sent somebody with us to film Boston. I don’t really know what he was thinking about at that point. And then after that, he wanted to make the movie. Once he realized we were going to ten cities.

Flavorpill: Does it change the vibe of things when there’s a camera around?

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April 2nd

Smokebrush Gallery

Art Opening

5-8pm

_______________

April 3rd

Stargazers Theater

Doors Open-3:00pm

4:00pm – Abraham Obama Screening /Q & A

5:30pm – The New Depressionists perform

6:30 -7:30pm – The Electric Illuminati video shoot/performance

7:30pm – Abraham Obama book signing

Tickets $12 (coupon in Indy $5 off)

by Alexandra Iselin Waldhorn

From his living room, decorated with figurines and a three-foot tall obese Ronald McDonald, Ron English could look out the tall windows and see the Hudson River flowing beneath the quiet town of Beacon, New York. The three-story white house is propped on up stilts, making space for an added bottom floor studio where English creates his sui generis amalgams of rebellious pop art that speak to the sociopolitical issues of the day.

Photo by Adam Amengual.

A little over a year ago, English and his wife Tarssa Yazdani and their kids, Zephyr, 13, and Mars, 11, left Jersey City for the bucolic town, where English continues to paint protest with vivid color and precise lighting

But aside from expensive canvases reaching tens of thousands of dollars, English, is a political street artist who has pasted illicit posters on over 1,000 billboards across the country.

“It’s a second degree felony to make my art,” he said about his 30-year career. The tally so far: felonies committed, 2,000; arrests, four. Mussed blond hair the color of wheat parted down the middle grazes English’s shoulders and he wears boxy black-rimmed glasses. “Do not arrest this person,” his burgundy t-shirt warns in yellow letters. English commits freedom of speech.

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Ron English invites you to join him in celebrating the Royal Flush Festival Premiere of director, Kevin Chapados’ film, Abraham Obama, a humorous and provocative examination of an unprecedented political art movement. Street artist Ron English gathers a crew of professional pranksters and hits the road on a grassroots campaign to make public art and promote Obama’s campaign for the Presidency. Abraham Obama takes us on an unforgettable ride as Ron English’s story unfolds alongside those of musicians and artists such as Shepard Fairey, Jack Medicine, David Choe, Sam Flores, Will.I.Am, Morgan Spurlock and many others. The screening is part of the fifth annual Royal Flush Festival
and will screen exclusively at The Anthology Film Archive (32 Second Avenue at the corner of Second Street in Manhattan, NY 10003) on Oct 16th at 7:45
Both Director Kevin Chapados and Ron English will be in attendance for Q & A immediately following the film. Advance tickets are available here:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producerevent/79709?prod_id=15849
We look forward to seeing you all there!