Ron English

Ron English, born in Dallas, Texas in 1959, lives and works in Los Angeles. One of the most prolific and recognisable artists alive today, Ron English has bombed the global landscape with unforgettable images, on the street, in museums, in movies, books and television.

English coined the term POPaganda to describe his signature mash-up of high and low cultural touchstones, from superhero mythology to totems of art history, populated with his vast and constantly growing arsenal of original characters, including MC Supersized, the obese fast-food mascot featured in the hit movie Supersize Me, and Abraham Obama, the fusion of America's 16th and 44th Presidents, an image widely discussed in the media as directly impacting the 2008 election.

Other characters carousing through English's art, in paintings, billboards, and sculpture include three-eyed rabbits, utterly delicious cowgirls and grinning skulls, blending stunning visuals with the bitingly humorous undertones of America's Premier 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 by 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.