Ron Walker

Ron Walker is a magical realism painter who has exhibited extensively in the United States since 1981. Recent solo exhibitions in California include Studio Chanel Islands in Camarillo, Gallery 625 at Yolo Arts in Woodland, Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, Gualala Art Center in Gualala, Art is Passion Gallery in Ventura, Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, and Artistic Edge Gallery in Sacramento. Some recent collective exhibitions include Holy Art Gallery in London, Las Laguna Art Gallery in California, repeated showings at Bold Expressions in Carmichael, California, and Lux Arts Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. Ron has been extensively published in periodicals since 1988 and recent publications include Llanot Review, Harpur Palate Magazine, Welter Magazine, and Masterful Minds Magazine.

Largely based in dream-like fantasy and other-wordly dimensions, Ron Walker depicts subjects in dilapidated forms of distortion and contortion, all with a color palette dipped in a mix of bright pastels and neon colors. His most notable paintings are typically those containing depictions of animals. These particular works have a distinction which seems child-like and an expression of playfulness steeped in fairytale wonder, but with unfamiliar qualities and representation. While the colors and depictions of animals can be described as ‘cute’ and innocent in form, there remains a sinister dark side to these entities seemingly disembowled—either literally or figuratively—as their anatomy becomes diced up and fused with other organisms, much like mythological Chimeras from Ancient Greek mythology.

Objects and organisms contort with these creatures through dissection and almost cartoonish display of playful violence, as if the viewer was watching old episodes of the Wild E. Coyote and Road Runner engage in back and forth conflict. The texture of the paintings are quite painterly, indicating these are not mere illustrations but rather works steeped in enchantment and duality between the subconscious as well as concrete conscious distortions. Oddly enough, with the combinations of bright colors and paste-like application of the paint, Ron’s paintings have the appearance of being pastries or even cake. The paintings appear as if edible combined with the loose distortions of anatomical form and extreme yet subdued violence contained within the works. As a result, we are presented with art based in contradictions of both adult and child-like themes which reflect both innocence and despair simultaneously.

The History of Civilization (pictured above) exemplifies Ron Walker’s style of depicting art with both child-like and macabre allegories. In the painting, the disembodied figure appears similar to Alice from Alice in Wonderland while the rabbit presented appears to be chasing or assaulting the young girl. In the distance, roosters convey shock as Alice seems to have been magically altered to have three legs and her torso as well as upper-body enchanted into a dying, nimble tree. A dark work, yet presented in joyful playfulness in color and form, however even the composition hints at chaos through the angular distortions of the vivid action taking place.

Ron Walker creates dark works steeped in dreamy, magical, child-like qualities which offer a conceptual dichotomy between innocence and vulgarity. He uses both craftsmanship and narrative to convey psychological notions based on memory and the nihilism of his exposure to suburbia. These fantastical creations express both contemporary suburban interpretation as well as vivid fantasy steeped in the darkest impulses, such as invoking  murder, torture, and chaos—yet all presented satirically in deeply cynical, playful paintings.

https://ronald-walker.pixels.com