Life After Death, 2019

Ken Flewellyn  

Flewellyn, a realist painter fascinated by the intersection of diverse cultures, personal histories and Hip Hop, creates portraits of women that challenge our assumptions about identity and cultural homogeneity.

Inspired by his lifelong love for Hip Hop and his youth during its golden age in the 1980s, Flewellyn's work has always focused on music and its impact on his personal perspective and worldview. As a cultural form, Hip Hop emerged from a localized cultural moment and evolved into a diverse and international form that consistently embraces the freedom of appropriation and the complexity of multiple voices. This idea of cultural heterogeneity has influenced the recurring themes in his imagery and shaped his belief in the positive power of cultural mash-ups.

Borrowing motifs and inspiration from Japanese culture and aesthetics, a visual influence present in him since childhood, Flewellyn often depicts women in traditional Japanese clothing, silks, and kimonos. The subjects, however, remain anonymous, visible only through their hands, bodies, and gestures; faces or individuals are rarely, if ever, fully revealed. The subject's identity is, therefore, conveyed through the presence of telltale objects, tattoos, and accessories—external clues that point to something beyond the visible and allow aesthetics to prevail over individualization or the distraction of specificity. That said, Flewellyn portrays real women based on real people—friends and strangers—grounding his imagery in reality rather than unrealistic idealizations.

The juxtaposition of formal cultural clothing and pop culture accessories keeps the work captivating. These tightly framed compositions are always informed by the presence of Hip Hop imagery, whether in the form of boomboxes, cassettes, gold chains, or typography. Playful and energized by tactility and detail, they are at once sensual and contemporary—solemn and lighthearted.