POP
Art inspired by New York's own subcultures from celebrity to subway something more through color & light
By artist OLAN montgomery Olanscooter
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Category: Fine Art
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Pop artist Olan's paintings along with poetry and famous art quotes.
RECENT REVIEW: PORTRAIT ARTIST MAKES IT BIG UPPING THE SUBCULTURE -
Oh, the horror when I recently threw out a painting a downtowny friend had made for me some years ago, then found out his prices had been skyrocketing! And he's not even dead! Now, I hold onto every little canvas—and thank God, I've not only kept the portrait Olan Montgomery made of me, it's looming on my living room wall and lording over all the portraits. (Yes, in lieu of mirrors, I have wall-to-wall visions of a younger, lovelier me.) Olan starts by taking a photo of you while telling you how meaningful you are to society and/or how you have penetrating eyes. Then he does painty or digital things to the photo and emerges with a portrait that's generally super colorful and very true. I'm hardly his only subject; he's also done Boy George, Justin Bond, Rufus Wainwright, and even some straight people. At the Art Expo last week, he sold a bunch of those paintings and had even more for sale at the after party at, aptly, Kanvas. "My work is an effort to capture an essence," says Olan, "and place it into a perpetual freeze frame. Why can't a nanosecond last forever?" My Olan portrait will last forever, that's for sure. I ain't throwing it out! - Michael Musto, The Village Voice - March 2008
"POP ART was marked by a fascination with popular
culture reflecting the affluence in post-war society in the 50's & 60's. It was most prominent in American art. In celebrating everyday objects such as soup cans, washing powder, comic strips and soda pop bottles. The movement turned the commonplace into icons. By definition POP ART is an art movement in the 50's through the 70's that incorporated modern popular culture and the mass media.
Pop Art is a direct descendant of Dadaism in the way it mocks the established art world by appropriating images from the street, the supermarket, the mass media, and presenting it as art in itself.
I see a new commonplace desire by popular culture for '5 seconds' of fame through reality TV and, in fact, celebrity 'flashing' is on the rise from the pants down. A friend of mine recently said to me, "today, people see what they want to see."
I'm asking you to see more.
My ICONS are aberrant, many not mainstream or known. No matter who they are, they are individuals who matter. They are all people with whom we all have something in common and they touch our lives every day, they are you and me. My 'soup cans & washing powders 'are now held by their 'commonplace strangers' from every street corner as they find sustenance through bottle collecting or whatever they can do to survive.
Today the not-so-subtle complexities of our 'POP CULTURE' are infinite in these 'not-so-affluent' societal times as our own country engages in conflict.
"I do not live in the 60's and I am not blind to my own popular culture and it's 'everyday objects', and yes, I do believe that people have been reduced to 'objects' in many situations fueled by mass media, and it's time for a change. My art is just here to remind you to do so and you can start by acknowledging the existence of that stranger standing next to you as a living breathing original work of art," states Olan.
'POP, seeing something more through color & light' by is a 200 page image piece of art inspired by New York's own subcultures from celebrity to subway. with poetry and more than 300 of Olan's pop art creations.
The book includes his art of such notables as ABT principal dancers Irina Dvorovenko, Maxim beloserkovsky, Ethan Steifel and Michele Wiles as well as soloists Stella Abrera and Sacha Radetsky. Other art pieces in the book include subjects Rufus Wainwright, Courtney Love, Anne Hathaway, Boy George, Amanda Lepore, Kelly Osbourne, Dominic West, Alan Cummings, Pat Field, Paulie Perette, Patrick McMullan, Stephanie Seymour, Perez Hilton, Susan Jaffe, Michael Musto and many more acting, club and fashion persona.
More subject matter in the book include populated locale in New York city including individuals who are known to be representative of the homeless, bottle collectors, street sweepers and car window washers.
"I've included art of a lawyer, a secretary and even a bike messenger as well, because we are all beautiful and special and of great importance. in 200 years from now many subtle aspects of our own pop culture today will be understood through the art we create today. A remembrence, an undertanding of things past through art is a beautiful thing," states Olan.
'POP' contains a large amount of the artists paintings and art prints created over the past seven years along with thoughts and poems by his family and friends.
..."the images are as invigorating as an unexpected gust of air cutting through the hot stillness of summer." Urban Tactics: Tellers in Tangerine by Laurel Gross for The New York Times - July 13, 2003
Olan's pop art explodes off the canvas like fireworks, both contemplating and celebrating the beauty of the individual." - Jennifer Cattaul for MAR Magazine - July-Aug 2006
"Vibrantly orbiting poised subjects, drizzled liberally onto canvases or brushed violently, colored paint is essential to making art pop. And no one understands the liquid rainbow better than New York City based artist, Olan. - "You Bring Light In By Monica Colbert - NY ARTS MAGAZINE
"My work has a simple message: see the individual through color
and light. by doing so, one's individuality can be more fully
understood. " - OLAN
I create my paintings from my own photographs. They are a combination of my photos handpainted on canvas.
My work has a simple message: see the individual through color and light. by doing so, one's individuality can be more fully understood.
It is a visual stimulation to remind people to simply
look at one another and see through the layers of a complex personality. In our world today fame and pop stardom are sometimes
reduced to “5 seconds of fame”. In some respects we can blame (or thank) the mass media for contributing to a jaded social value of “been there, done that”.
"Regardless, my work is an effort to capture an essence within that fleeting context and place it into a perpetual freezeframe. why can’t a nano-second last forever?"
OLAN 2008
Square 7x7 inches (18x18 cm) 200 pages
Published: April 29, 2008
