Mr. Controversial is a 30 something London based Artist who; transforms vintage imagery relegated to the past and brings it back to life with oil paint and relatable captions that tell comical, satirical and sometimes dark stories.
He plays with the concept of ‘The Familiar Surprise’. You’ve not seen this image before presented in this way but it reminds you of something familiar. He creates Imagery that elicits an emotional response and triggers a nostalgic or dark memory, packaged in satirical, relatable captions and quotes.
Drawing from his professional experience in the advertising industry working on campaigns for a variety of brands, his work is born out of a passion for crafting engaging visual communication and marketing psychology; understanding the science behind the things we buy, buy into and / or share and also personal frustrations of a social media obsessed world.
Relatability, shareability and storytelling are the foundations of his own artwork and no longer Ad campaigns for brands.
Mr. Controversial says; “Each piece should be instantly relatable to the viewer, as if you have stumbled upon something that hits the nail on the head of your own everyday life, making the ordinary extraordinary & hilariously absurd.
I want to create art that speaks to people on a personal level, (the inner you) as if I know something about them that nobody else does. If you don’t look at my art and think ‘OMG that’s so true’ or ‘That’s SOOO me, I can relate’ and if you aren’t blown away by the aesthetic in the imagery and oil paint… then I haven’t bloody done my job!”