Ron English will step back into Elms Lester with great expectation having enjoyed some great success of late. Corporate Masks, Christian Myths, Hidden Miracles and Subterranean Fables from the Moons of Saturn Ron English returns to London will be greeted with high optimism.
The American father of Agit Pop movement returns to hijack familiar images revealing a darker side at the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms What makes a Ron English piece of art instantly recognisable beyond its signature photorealist technique and brazen colour scheme is the utterly unique way in which the artwork presents a new idea embedded in the familiar, creating progressive mutations whilst referring to historical events.
When English was an art student he started to hijack billboards as a way of displaying his art to as many people as possible – it was later that he realised he could make political statements by the same means. He replaced existing advertisements with his own hand-painted “subvertisements” spreading his own socio-political message.
The new exhibition “Lazarus Rising” continues this theme, now dwelling on the unprecedented changes in the global economy, using prototypes of iconic cartoon characters and US comic books, so close to American culture and yet suddenly revealing in new ways.
By focusing on the under-the-surface meanings and obscure connotations of American icons, Ron English resurrects their original purpose by revealing the façade. It is by highlighting their inner contradiction that the usually open and recognisable public faces can then be seen for what they really are: tools that serve as corporate shills.
By distorting commonly recognisable characters English is able to change the narrative, and in effect, cancel out the oligarchic cooption. There is a certain illusive nature to American culture that, in the artist’s opinion, could definitely use a counterbalance.
“Ron English continues to exploit the mismatch between effortless style and edgy content in his paintings. It’s an effective strategy, wrong-footing viewers and making them reconsider the way they might absorb imagery from advertising without critically engaging with it.”
