Me, a pop icon artist?

Andy Warhol
2008
Oil on Canvas

John and Yoko Ono
Acrylic on Canvas

No More John and George on Abbey Road
Acrylic on Canvas

"Wendt Gallery is pleased to announce we will be hosting the first one man show for pop icon artist Dede Eri Supria in Fall 2011. The exhibition will be featured at both the New York City and Laguna Beach locations"

Me, a pop icon artist?

As I said in a previous post, I do not simply transfer reality onto canvas. This reality is the reality that I see in my own eyes. The world is different for me because I see these changes in our society from my own perspective. Even though I portray very clearly the events taking place in my surrounding, I paint realism not to portray something that represents this reality; rather, I paint from the construction that I have established.

Lately, I have been increasingly preoccupied with pop culture and pop icons. Andy Warhol, The Beatles, John Lennon and Yoko Ono... such ubiquitous subjects these are, and such a pervasive influence they hold over our lives. Do we, as people living in this moment, realize the extent that our lives have been changed by these pop culture icons and images, fed into our homes everyday through television and magazines?

The American hegemony is what I am concerned about here. I fear that with globalization and the continuing dominance of the Western culture, our society will slowly lose the essence of its culture as it gives way to these outside influences. Already, these influences can be seen in the way people live out their lives in Indonesia - people increasingly patronizing American fast food chains, subscribing to Western values and ideas, listening to Western music...

People who have been following my works through my career will know that the true meaning of my paintings do not lie in their surface appearance. Indeed, my art often utilizes symbolism to convey a far greater truth. In the three paintings above, I made use of pop icons in our urban society to create a fabricated reality that is capable of connecting with viewers and provoking a deeper emotional and intellectual response. Andy Warhol, in this instance, is such an apt subject to paint as he is the embodiment of pop culture and consumerism itself.

For those out there criticizing me for my change in artistic style, you don't know me well enough. This change has been continuous. I find, increasingly, that if I want to reach out to a greater spectrum of people, I have to adjust the subjects used accordingly so that my works can act as a mirror to allow for correlation with reality, as symbolized in my own style. It is a process similar to globalization, a process everyone has to adjust to in all aspects of our lives. My underlying message, my use of symbolism and obscurity has not changed. Instead, I feel that I have gained greater maturity in symbolizing reality, having moved away from my heavy use of visual elements such as the labyrinth in my earlier days.