james rawson visualizes pop culture through painting + collage

james rawson visualizes pop culture through painting + collage
‘archetype’
oil and acrylic on canvas
103cm x 103cm

british artist james rawson toys with the boundaries that lie between collage and painting, reflecting the multi-layered visual experience through his large-scale artworks. appropriating the images that have become implicit in our society, rawson’s work disturbs our sense of reality and confuses our preconceived perception of popular culture. the electrifying kaleidoscope of motifs, typography, and symbols that intermingle together within each work scream their message at the observer, acting as expository visualizations of societal flaws. narrated through the mixed media works are rawson’s ideas regarding consumption, the ubiquity of advertising, the notion of ‘sex sells’, greed, fast food and TV as the drug of a nation. the artist explains of his blunt series of dynamic works, ‘perhaps you don’t like what you see, the bawdy reality, the cheap thrill, the constant accumulation of sweet things, processed things, plastic things. unnatural things: but it doesn’t take away from the fact it’s the truth.’ 

‘one in the chamber’
oil and spray paint on canvas
75cm x  75cm

‘shark bait’
mixed media on canvas
119cm x 163cm

‘all’s fair in love and war’
oil on canvas  
102cm x 141cm

‘bitches love cake’
oil on canvas
50cm x  50cm

‘splash attack’
oil on canvas
100cm x 100cm

‘meaning of life’
mixed media on canvas
100cm x 100cm

‘day at the beach’
mixed media on canvas
103cm x 103cm

james rawson studio time lapse video of the painting ‘kait bait’
video courtesy of james rawson

‘goodbye my sweetheart’
oil paint on canvas
103cm x 103cm

‘kate bait’
oil and spray paint on canvas
105cm x 105cm

‘hobo with a shotgun’
oil and acrylic on canvas
119cm x 163cm

‘birth of venus’
oil on canvas
100cm x 100cm

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.