Author: Ron English

Ron English, a New York-based painter, has exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide for over twenty years his unique sensibility, in which the familiar is reflected through funhouse mirrors into something startlingly new. Recently his commentary and art were featured in the hit movie \"Supersize Me,\" widening his audience beyond the boundaries of intrepid art seekers, and he has appeared on television in the US, Canada, Europe, and Japan. He is also the subject of an award-winning documentary, \"POPaganda, the Art and Crimes of Ron English.\" Most recently Ron has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Amsterdam, where he created a series of paintings and billboards addressing the recent controversy surrounding the assassination of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by Muslim extremists. He has also found time to delve into toy making, with a newly released series of vinyl figures, including MC Supersized, Ronnnie Rabbbit, Big Yang and the Yangbangers, and Cathy Cowgirl. In addition to painting, Ron English is widely considered to be one of the seminal figures in the culture jamming movement, in which artists and activists subvert existing advertisements to encourage free thought. He has pirated more than a thousand billboards over the last twenty years, replacing existing advertisements with his own "subvertisements," ranging from his \"Cancer Kids" campaign featuring preadolescent camels hawking cigarettes to children, to Apple computer's "Think Different" campaign, where Ron added such 20th Century luminaries as Charles Manson to Apple\"™s roster of spokesmen. Most recently Ron staged an elaborate \"tribute\" to Ronald McDonald in San Francisco, in collaboration with the Billboard Liberation Front, featuring animatronic sculpture, billboard art and the spontaneous performance of fifty-odd Ronalds, Hamburglars, and assorted clowns. In July of 2006, Ron premiered his 12 x 27-foot interpretation of \"Guernica,\" which is one foot longer and one foot taller than Picasso\"™s original, featuring a psychodrama acted out by his children, and viewed from the point of view of the bomber airplane. In 2007 the artist celebrates the 70th anniversary of Guernica with an series of billboard installations in Spain depicting modern variations of Picasso\"™s classic painting.
Posted on

Augmented Reality Advertising Takeover

From Ron English:

Augmented Reality is the process of overlaying digital information onto the real world creating a hyper reality unavailable under normal circumstances. Currently restricted to internet enabled smart devices, this technology will leap from our hands and into our eyes as ocular devices become commonplace and the augmented world.

Augmented Reality Advertising Takeover (AR | AD)

A little over a week ago PublicAdCampaign and The Heavy Projects launched the AR I AD Takeover in Times Square, NY.

The Augmented Reality Junaio channel used 5 separate ad campaigns to trigger their own replacement with the artwork of 5 of our favorite public space artists including, Ron English, John Fekner, PosterBoy, OX, and Dr. D.

After challenging outdoor advertising’s supremacy in public space for the past 10 years by illegally re-appropriating physical advertising venues, PublicAdCampaign has raised awareness but made little progress in our ultimate goal of completely removing outdoor signage from our shared environment.

With the advent of Augmented Reality the rules are beginning to change as to who can claim ownership to public space and we are excited to be on the cutting edge of this new adventure to redefine the visual landscape of our shared public environment.

Related posts:

  1. Artist ABOVE’s Latest: Blood Diamond
  2. In Celebration of Street Art, 2011
  3. More Banksy
  4. “Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art” Book Release Party Announced
Posted on

The Art and Crimes of Ron English to Air on Ovation

Submitted by Michaela Dietz of Ovation TV for Ron English:

Kiss Kids-200Ovation is airing Popaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English, a film about the culture-jamming and billboard-liberation antics of Ron English. The modern day Robin Hood of Madison Avenue, Ron paints, perverts, infiltrates, reinvents and satirizes modern culture on canvas, in songs, and directly on hundreds of pirated billboards. Shot entirely guerilla-style, the film chronicles the evolution of an artist who offers an alternative universe where nothing is sacred, everything is subverted and there’s always room for a little good-natured fun.

Where: Ovation TV
When: October 24, 2009 at 8pm, 11pm
and October 25, 2009 at 12:00pm

Related posts:

  1. Where the Sun Don’t Shine
  2. The Guerrilla Girls Are Asking:
  3. Meet the Street Artists Who Pranked Showtime
  4. Joey Skaggs as Santa Takes His Missile Tow to the United Nations
Posted on

Ron English to Screen “Abraham Obama”

Ron English announces:

The New York premiere of Abraham Obama
Thursday, May 14, 2009, 8pm
92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street, New York City
Artist Ron English will be there in person for post-screening Q&A.
Director: Kevin Chapados. 54 min. 2008.

billboard_obamaboston-425

Abraham Obama is a humorous and provocative look at an unprecedented political art movement. Street artist Ron English gathers a crew of professional pranksters and hits the road on a grassroots campaign to make public art and promote Obama’s campaign for the Presidency. Abraham Obama takes us on an unforgettable ride as the stories of Ron English unfold alongside musicians and artists such as Shepard Fairey, Jack Medicine, David Choe, Sam Flores, Will.I.Am, Morgan Spurlock and many others.

Director: Kevin Chapados. 54 min. 2008.
Date & Time: Thu, May 14, 2009, 8:00pm
Location: 92YTribeca Screening Room, 200 Hudson Street – Directions
Code: T-MM5FM33-01
Price: $12.00

Related posts:

  1. And From a Tiny Acorn…
  2. Better Than Breaking Your Ankle in a Pothole
  3. Banksy Immortalizes Painting That Caused Artist Zehra Dogan’s Arrest & Imprisonment in Turkey
  4. Meet Trump Booster and Digital Chimera Steven Smith (R-GA)

Back to top