Adam McEwen
"Michael III", 2014
Adam McEwen
"George“, 2014
Adam McEwen
"Jimmy“, 2014
Adam McEwen
"Tommy“, 2014
Adam McEwen
"Camillo“, 2014
Within the work of British-born artist Adam McEwen resides a level of perverse cheekiness.
From silk-screened obituaries of living subjects, ranging in focus from Jeff Koons to Kate Moss, to graphite sculptures of ATM machines, bars of chocolate and soy sauce bottles, exists an ever-present notion of the familiar paired with the unorthodox. Case in point, McEwen's photographic limo paintings printed in inkjet onto sponge. The artist began contemplating the irrationality of the stretch, tubular vehicle years before he started producing the series in 2013. A small but robust body of work, each painting is named after the proud driver of the depicted limo. The works can be hung horizontally or vertically, right-side up or upside down, however one might see fit. With titles ranging from "Camillo" and "Michael III" to "Big Mike" and “Fernando”, a fantasy dialogue emerges between the zoomed in frame of each limo’s exterior and it’s ‘would be’ driver’s name. Staring at the works and their respective titles, one can’t help but wonder what’s gone on in the back of George’s twenty-plus foot, stretch white Lincoln Town Car.
