Art
Naive John is a self-taught artist. Early work like The Blue Man (1988) with its use of flattened space and cartoon imagery predates Lowbrow art and Pop Surrealism and is indicative of the artist's maverick approach to art production. His current paintings combine mythological, surreal and popular images juxtaposed with Liverpool's urban setting. They often refer to concerns for the environment with a humorous element. The painting Sefton Park – Genetically Modified is a good example of the issues the artist has explored. In other paintings figures are shown in isolation and appear pensive and alienated from the rest of society. The relationship between the difficulty facing ordinary human beings making moral choices when they have to face hostile environmental factors is portrayed in Toxteth Cherub.
A new commission The Chav-ant Garde sees the artist returning to his pop culture roots. The painting is at once a depiction of the artist's dysfunctional family and a satire on media manipulated public outrage based around the stereotype of the chav. The family members are derived from the popular children's television series Teletubbies and In The Night Garden.
Naive John works very slowly, late at night, producing an average of three paintings a year. He uses water-based oil paints and his paintings are built up in layers using a variety of techniques: old master's Flemish methods, digital manipulation, sgraffitto, rubbing with fingers, wiping paint off with a kitchen towel and other innovative methods.
His work is represented in private and public collections, including the Hunterian Museum, Scotland and the David Roberts Collection.
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