Ron English has long been a favorite of ours, being one of the best street-artists-cum-visual-genius of his generation. On Saturday, October 26, he opened a new solo show of his comically tragic photorealistic paintings to an exhibition called “POPGANDASTAN.” Taking his twisting of pop-culture icons to a new level, the works he’s shared with us appear to be the perverse nightmares of a circus clown, showing something of the unconscious that is critical and terrifying, while still able to engage the viewer.
“POPGANDASTAN” is a thematically complex show, utilizing landscapes and creatures and characters all fresh to a conceptual universe of English’s design. This is how the gallery describes the affair:
Like an Acid-Pop Aesop’s Fable, these paintings serve as a conceptual battleground for a multitude of viewpoints in harmonic opposition, creating the ultimate Pop Utopia. English has populated his visionary village with his original characters, each the embodiment of a distinct aspect of the human condition. The central character is Ronnnie Rabbbit, a three-eyed neurotic rabbit whose two brains argue each side to every argument. The Combrats are a feral group of doe eyed, runaway, militaristic, dinosaur riding clowns who enforce community law. The Snappers are slow moving antagonists of a destructive, hyperactive culture of planned obsolescence.
The Corey Helford Gallery is located at 8522 Washington Boulevard, Culver City, Calif. The show will be on display through November 16.
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[via Corey Helford Gallery]
