Pop Parody: Ron English at Varnish Fine Art

Known as the father of "agit-pop," English juxtaposes a highly critical political sensibility with modern advertising techniques, using his message to alter their meaning. Aided by an extended family of subverts, the artist has been known to alter large-scale billboard advertisements by pasting over them, replacing text and image with his own designs.

A 2004 documentary about English, Popaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English (watch the trailer!), was recently screened at the San Francisco Documentary Film Festival, and will run once more at Varnish on June 11th, at 8 pm. Director Pedro Carvajal chronicles English's long history of culture-jamming; though his solo work began in 1983 with his first billboard hijackings in Austin, Texas, his work with collectives such as San Francisco's Billboard Liberation Front goes back to 1979.