Ron English “Guernica”

Allouche Gallery

[Image: Ron English "Guernica Days" (2015-2016) oil on canvas, 50 x 92 x 1.5 in. Courtesy of Allouche Gallery, NY]

This event has ended.

Allouche Gallery presents its first solo show in the Meatpacking District, Ron English / Guernica, featuring the inaugural debut of eighteen new paintings by the prolific contemporary Pop and street artist, Ron English.

The exhibition’s title and its pieces reference English’s own narrative to Pablo Picasso’s 1937 painting Guernica, which is praised as one of the most famous anti-war paintings in history. While Picasso’s Guernica was painted in response to the bombing of a village in northern Spain, English utilizes the modern war template to relay powerful messages about the endless cycles of creation and destruction.

The artist has been working on Ron English / Guernica for over two years. He has examined the templates obsessively to imagine the truth in experience from every angle. Each piece from this body of work forces the viewer to face cultural biases that are embedded in our consciousness. “I don’t believe I will ever exhaust the possibilities of the [Guernica] template, with its unending power to visually articulate the raging complexities of waste, destruction, horror and conquest, through its deceptively simplified narrative,” says English.

English’s bold yet masterful style is indicative of Allouche Gallery’s ongoing commitment to pushing artistic boundaries.

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.