This past weekend, we stopped by the private opening of Season In Supurbia, the latest solo exhibition (and first show in LA in over 10 years) of legendary artist, Ron English. The exhibition is currently on display at Corey Helford Gallery, and features works examining suburban life dosed with a cocktail of subversive visuals, consumer culture, and POPaganda politics.

 

Considered one of the most prolific artists of our generation, English is the father of POPaganda, a term he coined to define his signature mash-up of high and low cultural touchstones, from superhero mythology to totems of art history, creating a visual language of evolution.  Recognized for his stunning technique and inventive use of color, English’s artistic presence continues to evolve from illegal street murals to movie screens, where he is crowned “the Greatest Living Artist” in Morgan Spurlock’s 2011 film “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.”

For his first solo exhibition with Corey Helford Gallery, English captures intimate moments in suburban life dosed with a cocktail of subversive visuals, consumer culture, and POPaganda politics.  In this series the artist explores the inability of the 21st century oversaturated American soul to distinguish between political realities and pop culture illusions, constructing doll-house depictions of comic-contrived reality to compete against global belief systems. In short: Suburban Surrealism.

Many of English’s archetypal characters serve as denizens of Supurbia, including MC Supersized, the corpulent fast-food spokesman, Hulk Baby, the oversized Enfant Terrible, Combats, the child soldiers, sexualized cowgirls, alien rabbits, proletariat turtles, sad sacks and sinister Grins. Outside, grazing the lawns of Supurbia, are herds of Camo Deer, with coats of camouflage that change with the seasons, protecting them from the hunter’s scope while preserving them like a romantic memory from the last days of baby boomer youth.

 

Following are a few images from the opening reception.

 

—Amy Duran

 

 

 

 

 

Ron English

Season In Supurbia

Corey Helford Gallery

Through December 10th, 2011