Retro-Rebellion Style Artist Visits Traverse City: Ron Wharton
By Angeline D’Balentine/HEAR Magazine/Traverse City
Hot Diggity! Sarcasm, irony, and vices: the lowbrow artwork of Ron Wharton comes to Michigan to share his rebel-without-a-cause personified paintings.
Wharton, known for the mockery and satire speaking out from his acrylic on lauan (thin plywood) paintings, exhibited in the cherry capital of the United States this week. He received a personal invitation from the Inside Out Gallery: a soho-ish, underground gallery that showcases daring and jaw-dropping artwork along with music and film. The Inside Out Gallery is known as a venue that gives way to the Warehouse District culture rapidly growing within the community of Traverse City.
Urge by Ron Wharton
“When they invited me I thought ‘Hey, never been to Michigan – should check this place out.’ I’ve heard some good and some bad about Michigan, honestly. But being here now this place is beautiful and cool people.” Said Wharton.
Wharton is nick named the Art Pimp. His slogan is “art that tastes like a sugar-coated Satan sandwich.”
Upon taking a personal stroll with Wharton through his exhibition I asked him to share with me his favorite painting – though I know, of course, they all were. He smirked with delight and waltzed me over to his painting called “Urge.” A 30X48 painting he completed in 2004 that is filled with a story of addiction and the irony in the existence of that addiction. He noted it wasn’t a personal story, but one he witnessed.
Hence, creating thispainting in reaction to what he explained to me as “the monkey on one’s back.” He walked me through the points of importance in the painting like the two cubism-like figures shaking hands. One is the drug dealer. The other the drug addict. In this painting specifically it signifies the drug Heroin. On the figure with the monkey on it’s back you can see a flower on his suit. It is signatory of the poppy plant that is present in the drug. The scientific elements in the background signify the different types of atoms that are present in that drug that cause the alteration. I asked if he did research to come up with such significant elements for the painting, and he nodded, “Indeed, I did.”
One painting that stood out to me in particular was titled “Barry.” I recognized the subject to be our president, Barack Obama. Wharton confirmed my inquiry and explained that “back in the day they use to call Obama ‘Barry’. He was a hip, happening sort of guy.”
Ron Wharton by D'Balentine/HEAR Magazine
Wharton was born on the East Coast of Maryland, Wharton currently resides in San Diego, California. It was an honor to have such a great artist visit us here on the shores of Traverse Bay, and we look forward to having him visit hopefully more often in the TC Warehouse District! Hot Diggity!
Check out Ron Wharton the Art Pimp’s website here:
http://rwharton.illequipped.
