Allouche Gallery will open its doors to Brand Royalty, the first solo show of the Fall season, featuring the inaugural debut of twenty new paintings by the contemporary Pop and street artist. Ron English. The exhibition will remain on view at Allouche Gallery from September 18 to October 19, 2021.
Brand Royalty is world-renowned artist Ron English’s latest 20-piece body of work, examining the ever- evolving social semiotic flow in advertising, branding, inculcation, and the artistic process. The collection involves reappropriation of signature imagery from Picasso, Warhol and Basquiat in a symbiotic remix with English’s own iconic characters, reallocating intent and meaning to construct a new narrative of creation and conflict.
The works created throughout this past year, where our society has endured the Covid pandemic and a shift in politics, English’s iconic characters navigate metamorphic landscapes and grapple in the company of corporate brands with delusions of ecstasy and heartbreak. The viewer is enticed by popular brands such as Paramount Pictures, characters from children’s shows and media, a reference to Uncle Sam, imagery from contemporary artist Basquiat’s work, and English’s own reformation of Picasso’s Girl before a Mirror, all which epitomize English’s response to historical art with the use of the present-day outlook.
Paying homage with playful repurpose, English layers graffiti with the language of signs in old master oil technique, giving agency to his own characters and symbols to graft new language upon established iconography, forming call and response dialog with the radical masters of twentieth century pop to question the nature and direction of illusion/delusion. English reimagines the chaotic composition of the famous Warhol-Basquiat collaboration to craft a narrative of rock star sexual excess and the whitewashing of a complicated human relationship with cartoon pop façade. Serving as centerpiece and central mythmaking generator, the oversize painting “Delusionville Paint Jam” pitches perfect anthropomorphic mayhem from a mind-bending magic mushroom thought cloud hovering above the three-eyed, hare-brained armchair philosopher and slothful soothsayer Potato Rabbbit, avatar and author of English’s latest grand delusion. English’s bold yet masterful style is indicative of Allouche Gallery’s ongoing commitment to pushing artistic boundaries.
About Ron English ~ One of the most prolific and recognizable 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, udderly delicious cowgirls and grinning skulls, blending stunning visuals with the bitingly humorous undertones of America’s Premier Pop Iconoclast. Ron English’s artwork is held in museum collections worldwide including the Whitney Museum, the Everhart Museum, the Paterson Museum, the Museum Checkpoint Charlie, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Paris, France and Franklin Furnace.
About Allouche Gallery ~ Established in 2014, Allouche Gallery is home to an international roster of some of the world’s most recognized and culturally significant contemporary visual artists. Through its highly curated exhibition program, the gallery has garnered a reputation for highlighting artists – whose work directly challenges preconceived notions of contemporary visual culture – and affirming their place in 21st Century art. Home to a select group of both established and rising artists across a variety of disciplines, Allouche Gallery represents the work of Ron English, Swoon, Faile, Nick Georgiou, Malik Roberts, Stickymonger, Paul Insect, Rafa Macarron, Reinoud Oudshoorn, and Mariu Palacios.
Ron English: Brand Royalty will be on view from September 18 to October 19, 2021, with Opening Reception on Saturday, September 18th from 6:00 ~ 9:00pm. Allouche Gallery is located at 82 Gansevoort Street, across from The Whitney Museum of America Art in the historic Meatpacking District in NYC.
Take a look-back to Ron English: Delusionville at Allouche Gallery in 2018. Check out some of Ron English’s work in Graffiti in the Sky/4 World Trade Center.
Follow Ron English on his website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.