If it was up to us, all the best design in the world would be posted within the Parfois Portfolio… But… its not up to us. Stumbling the web we often bump into things worth sharing. The world wide web is so full off great things that will never end up in our portfolio, but which we want the world to see. For this we created our blog. At this moment there 4 of us blogging on a regular basis.Work, studies and social life makes that there are weeks with a lot of posts, and weeks without. But we’ll do our best in bringing you the nicest shit on a acceptable basis.
‘Parfois, changing the blogosphere one post at a time’
Ron English is the first artist to be discussed in the Parfois Undressed section. From today we are going to undress several artists. We start with our personal favorites. Trying to explain why we like them, and what makes them special for us. So we kick off with Ron English, read on for my story, more pictures, and even a song.
Ron English is one talented guy, he not only makes art, but also music. You can read on with some background music.
Short:
Ron English is a contemporary pop artist who explores popular brand
imagery and advertising. He is know for his Billboard Bombing,
replacing existing campaigns with his own art that very often uses tactics of advertising to attack the products themselves in order to encourage free thought.¬†Frequent targets of his work include Joe Camel, McDonals and Mickey Mouse. Ron English is considered one of the the fathers of modern street art and has initiated and participated in illegal public art campaigns since the early eighties. Some of his extralegal murals include one on the Berlin Wall’s Checkpoint Charlie in 1989 and on on the Palestinian separation wall in the West Bank in 2007, with fellow street artists Banksy and Swoon.
English was born in 1966 in Dallas, Texas. He has exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide for over twenty years, influencing a generation of artists and art lovers with his unique sensibility, in which the familiar is reflected through funhouse mirrors into something disconcertingly new. His commentary and art were featured in the movie “Supersize Me,” widening his audience beyond the boundaries of intrepid art seekers. Ron English was also the subject of award-winning documentary “POPaganda, the Art and Crimes of Ron English”.
Mr. English has worked across the visual arts spectrum, from vinyl sculpture to billboards and oil painting. Whereas most artists can be classified as either conceptual or visceral, Ron English is both, having achieved mastery of the physical medium even as his conceptual basis for painting has deepened into a refined distillation of socio-political observation, humor, and memory. Although his work is highly conceptual, English mothers every inch of the canvas, where each brushstroke is an artistic decision; the resulting humanity and warmth of the work stands as counterpoint to its idea-based origin.
Often using his children as models, and in particular his son as stand-in, English chronicles the soul’s sojourn through Pop dioramas of fear and appetite, aspiration and rage. While paying homage to the great art before him, English maintains his very personal point of view, transforming the public to intimate and the universal to specific. Using a mixture of imagery, medium and process referenced from great masters such as Warhol, Pollack and Picasso, combined with irreverent cherry-picking of populist totems from fast food to cartoons, English creates complex running narratives of his many alter-egos butting headfirst into the Grand Illusion, where unstated cultural norms are exposed and analyzed. This is art that processes the visual touchstones of modern culture into a questioning voice that demands dialog with the viewer on what it means to be alive right now.
Why Ron English?:
I Don’t know Mr. English for a long time, I came across his work in the Internet and I wen’t looking for some more information. What I like about his work is the use of bright colors, the sneering message he sends in the world, and the use of real life characters with an graphical touch. For me he is a huge artist, and in his long career he used several techniques and styles. Most of the time they became a inspiration to others. Also the childish atmosphere¬†in his images is something that catches me. Altho the meaning is bloody serious. It is not just “work”, he has something he wants to tell the world. ¬†My favorite painting is the one I used at the top of this post.
[...] have spoken about Banksy a couple of times, here, and here. Today some websites report that there will be a movie featuring, or made by Banksy. [...]
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