Ron Laboray is an American multimedia conceptual artist known for his paintings, drawings, video and sculpture. Laboray’s work is scientific and digitally influenced using both abstraction and realism to discuss topics within mass culture, shared histories, Globalization and time.
Pretty Power is also an exhibition of new work by Laboray curated by Camilla Boemio at AOC F58 Galleria Bruno Lisi in Rome. The exhibition—which includes unique, three large-scale layered drawings and a series of animated music videos created concurrently with the Pretty Power series, works complementing the pop music cultural references found in the drawings. The exhibited works inaugurate a new direction in the artist’s practice. In this interview the artist discusses the inspiration behind his iconic artworks.
C.B.: How does it feel for you to come to a gallery and finally get to see your ideas coming to fruition?
R.L.: Sustaining a daily creative practice involves research, experimentation, and reflection. When I speak about research, it involves looking at or experiencing art, reading contemporary philosophy and history, journaling, and recording, collecting of random or not so random things, and traveling and engaging in the World. Experimentation involves productive time in the studio or however one might generate art. It is important to me to be working on what I don’t know or that I am trying out a new idea. These experimentations lead to breakthroughs, visual or conceptual, that then result in new work. Often these experimentations must linger around the studio to find meaning or necessity in the continuation of the creative process. One of my favorite ways to experiment is to collaborate with other creatives. This process of briefly coming together to make art informs and inspires me by subjecting my practice to the unknown or unexpected. The knowledge and experiences of the other artist is always beneficial in seeing my ideas in a new way and shaping the new form. Reflecting on my research and experimentation helps form a fuller picture of my practice and assist in giving direction to the conversations within the artworks. This practice of reflection, more broadly, places the artist as an active citizen with a political voice, producing commentary and filling the world with what they desire.
C.B.: Pretty Power solo show moves into the beauty and the power. What are for you symbols that compose these dualities?
R.L.: I started this series with lists. One listing powerful things like countries, nature, institutions, religion, music and wealth. Then another list of beautiful things, which I found was much like the previous list. Nature became animals like wolves or flowers. Wealth was represented by beautiful gem cutting diagrams or decorated armor of the King of France. I then began to make connections by contrasting the subjects within the composition. This enabled me to make meaningful relationships between seemingly random elements. Although the content seems random, the titles assist with the understanding of conceptual linkage.
C.B.: Why have you used symbols and images of the first woman drag racer Shirley Muldowney, Syd Barrett and the iconic Kurt Cobain’s guitar in this narration? Can you tell us more?
R.L.: I am interested in how historical events, cultural icons, natural wonders, and traditional symbols connect us. These are the elements of human history that we celebrate. When constructing my works, I use these dual conditions of iconic power and beauty to draw attention to our collective shared experience. By juxtaposing and representing these subjects, I create an archive of what is important in mass culture, while also delivering an art object reflecting the time it was produced
The first American female drag racing champion, Shirley Muldowney, is someone I grew up watching and admiring on television. Although I never met her, she remains someone I revere for her will and strength and beauty. Music, an essential part of mass culture, is present in the works. The colors of a guitar played by Kurt Cobain or a famously painted floor of Syd Barrett, the founding member of Pink Floyd, drive a visceral reaction developed by the listener viewer who know their stories. Their stories are sad and beautiful, two traits that hold a great deal of power
1)The flowers of the G12 , 2) Shirley Muldowney’s first win and the colors of the Pink Panther” enamel and Sharpie marker on plastic drop cloth. 7’6”x15’5” 2024
“3) A gemstone diagram, a pack of wolves, and the colors of Kurt Cobain’s guitar.” Enamel and Sharpie marker on plastic drop cloth. 7’x6’9” 2024
CB: You are interested in the idea of cultural continuum; you want to juxtapose the past with the present using an aesthetic narration because you didn’t see why a wealth of cultural history had to be cast behind us. Also telling a story of United States. What does it mean to be an American artist?
R.L.: These timeline drawings attempt to connect us and by doing so, demonstrate the importance of human history. The combination and juxtaposition of various pieces of information result in an abstraction and a timeline, much like a history book or a new journal. Whether it is true or not is irrelevant, what matters is only that something happened or was conceived on the way to another event or idea. Aesthetics draw us together through a science of pleasurable looking. This pleasurable looking is a power held by beauty. Beauty is then used to communicate broadly and convince the viewer that the image holds value.
As an American, I am also a citizen of the World, so I tend not to look at ways that separate us into us and them. However, I understand the privileges that come from being American. Our popular culture is a large global influence. Rock and Roll, Hip Hop dominant Hollywood cinema have affected most every other country. There is a power that America has in influencing and defining mass culture. Maybe that’s why it is central to my conversation. I acknowledge and draw attention to how America’s influence connects us rather than demonstrate a negative contrast or conflict. Global citizenship means reflecting on how my actions fit in a global context. This is why my process of appropriation, chance, and even the application process of spraying paint seem to distance my personal authorship or identity, and once in front of the work, my contribution is that of humor, reflection and hope.
C.B.: Different timelines of popular culture are included tin your project, how is popular culture present in your artistic practice? What influences you?
R.L.: These drawings represent points along timelines that include common facts that influence me like known histories, science, collections of things, invented fictions and cultural myths. I am interested in subject matter which compels hope and demonstrates important values. These values are apparent in popular culture.
What we hold as valuable is presented in television and movies with our morals and virtues explored through comic book superheroes, sporting events and cultural celebrations. These popular ideas and beliefs are best understood when we dissect the mode of transmission (like comic books or music platforms). I dissect these modes of transmission using a timeline. These timelines operate using appropriated laws from science like “The Law of Superposition”, which is a way to tell geological time. The older pop culture information, which came first in time, is in the foreground and the newer more recent information is in the background. This reading can also be flipped depending on the temporal position of the drawing’s information. Drawing traditions also lend to deciphering the timelines. Clarity and overlap are used to create a sense of time through distance, detail and sharpness. In the end, the drawings frame what is important to me which is a narrative of humanity that demonstrates ideas that are popular and accessible to almost everyone.
C.B.: With music as constant vehicle, how does music expand your artistic vision?
R.L.: Music is important to me. Again, it is a popular art form shared and enjoyed across cultures. Music sets the mood but also includes those important virtues like love and reflection. In America we have many cities known for their music. I grew up in St. Louis known for Blues music. I currently live in Asheville North Carolina which is known for Appalachian Mountain style music. Just down the highway is Nashville Tennessee, which is famous for the beginnings of Rock and Roll and country music. These places have influenced the World of music and my art. Recently I have traveled to Portland Oregon and Nashville to see musicians perform. This is why I have Included in the exhibition, a collaborative project known as Little Richard’s Almanac. A collection of animations that are music videos started by me and my partner Niki Elliott. The animations are collaborations with well-known musicians like; The Brian Jonestown Massacre (Berlin), Federale (Portland), L.A. Mood (Australia), and composer Engelbert ‘Angel” Lerch (Munich). Like all creative forms these are essentially forms of power and beauty, these happen to lay squarely within popular culture. These narratives embrace serious play including humor, irony and cultural critique. Collaborating in this manner involves participating within popular culture through music and allows for the discovery of new creative territory and serves as a place for inspiration and connection.
Camilla Boemio is an internationally published author, curator, and member of the AICA (International Arts Critics) and IKT (International) based in Rome. Recently, she had curated Antonio Palmieri: TEN YEARS: BSR People 14 – 24 at British School at Rome (2024). The solo show by Palmieri, who over the course of ten years working at BSR has photographed the people who have passed through the academy, from fellows to staff, inventing characters and telling stories.
She co-curated with AAC Platform Stefano Cagol. The Bouvet Island at ETRU Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia (2024); and Saun Santipreecha: Performative Cities presented by Reisig and Taylor Contemporary at AOC F58 Galleria Bruno Lisi in Roma (2024).
In 2013, Boemio was the co-associate curator of PORTABLE NATION: Disappearance as Work in Progress – Approaches to Ecological Romanticism, the Maldives Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. In 2016, Boemio curated Diminished Capacity, the First Nigerian Pavilion at 15th International Architecture Exhibition Biennale. Boemio’s recent curatorial projects include her role as co-associate curator at Pera + Flora + Fauna. The Story of Indigenousness and The Ownership of History, an official collateral event at the 59th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, which was commissioned by PORT and the state government of Perak, Malaysia, in 2022.
Invitations to speak include the Tate Liverpool, MUSE Science Museum, Pistoia Musei, Roma Museo Orto Botanico and the Cambridge Festival 2021 at Crassh in the UK.
