above:DOC preparing one of his giant ring pops for the booth at Art Miami
Giant Ring Pop sculptures and Birth Control Pill portraits of fashion designers are amongst the new work by artist Jonathan Paul (aka Desire Obtain Cherish) from the Unix Gallery at this year’s Art Miami, Dec 2-7th.
DOC combines pop art, street art and conceptual art to make a commentary on commerce, fashion, society and marketing. Often creating tongue-in-cheek and controversial pieces featuring well-known luxury brands and fashion labels, his work is both simultaneously fun and contemplative. You may recall my post on his giant blister packs of pills labeled with luxury logos. Mocking society’s desire for consumption, his satirical works laugh at us while we can laugh at the work.
Thanks to the artist’s Instagram account I can include images of his setting up the work so you can get an idea of the scale of the pieces.
Desire Obtain Cherish At Art Miami
Married to Success – Ringpop – Assorted Colors, 2014
UV Cast Resin, Acrylic, Wood, 39 × 26 × 28 in (99.1 × 66 × 71.1 cm):
To put the scale of these in context, here’s a great shot of the artist sitting amongst his creations:
Intensive Care Unit – 5 Pack, 2014
18K Gold and Nickel Plated Metal Encased in Plexi. 34 1/2 × 23 × 5 in (87.6 × 58.4 × 12.7 cm):
“Ideas win today in our society. […] I ingest, then digest. art is really just a mirror of ourselves.” – Desire Obtain Cherish
‘I Refuse To Grow Up’ are a series of large wall mounted sculptures that take combine over-sized birth control pill packets with Japanese anime, images and logos from the work of well-know fashion designers Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford and Jeremy Scott.
I Refuse to Grow Up – Karl Lagerfeld, 2014
UV Cast Resin, Acrylic, Wood, 32 in diameter (81.3 cm diameter):
I Refuse to Grow Up – Marc Jacobs, 2014
UV Cast Resin, Acrylic, Wood, 32 in diameter (81.3 cm diameter):
detail:
I Refuse to Grow Up – Tom Ford, 2014
UV Cast Resin, Acrylic, Wood, 32 in diameter (81.3 cm diameter):
I Refuse to Grow Up – Jeremy Scott, 2014
UV Cast Resin, Acrylic, Wood, 32 in diameter (81.3 cm diameter):
Below DOC gets ready to hang I Refuse to Grow Up – Karl Lagerfeld:
Testament of Faith – 25mg, 2014
Mixed Media, 34 × 36 × 3 in (86.4 × 91.4 × 7.6 cm):
detail:
Below DOC with the piece:
Meant to have an impact on its audience, DOC’s work employs sarcasm to tackle and provoke society’s value system. Aiming to avoid the conventional, stereotypical standards of “good taste” in art, his ideas are more in line with contemporary commerce and marketing methods than traditional artisan methods.
“Sacred Heights”, 2014
5′ x 16″, custom shoes:
detail:
Medium Meltdown – Gold Flake, 2014
UV Cast Resin, 26 × 11 × 11 in (66 × 27.9 × 27.9 cm):
The American Landscape, 2014
48 × 58 in (121.9 × 147.3 cm):
To inquire about availability and pricing for these and more pieces by Desire Obtain Cherish, contact the Unix Gallery
About the Artist:
Desire Obtain Cherish (alias Jonathan Paul )
b. 1975, California
Since his emergence as street artist in the early 2000s, Desire Obtain Cherish (DOC) has become known as pop sculptor working across a wide variety of different media and a combination of styles including street, pop, conceptual, and appropriation art. His controversial work explores contemporary desires and obsessions with sex, gender, drugs, commerce, media, and fame. Transporting controversial, satirical messages, Desire’s vibrantly colorful, entertaining, and impeccably produced art exposes society’s inability to control itself and examines the commercial promise of fulfillment and happiness that ends in dependency.
The esteemed New Yorker art critic Benjamin Genocchio characterized DOC’s work as “not malicious, even if his works cut to the bone. He is more like our social conscience, delivering up uncomfortable and unpleasant truths wrapped in the most beautiful and seductive of packages.”
Born in 1975 in Salinas, California, he graduated from the nationally acclaimed Parson’s School of Design with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts. Since his first solo show at Lab Art street gallery in Los Angeles (2011), he has been featured in numerous shows and fairs including Scope International Art Show at Art Basel Miami (2012); Palm Beach Art Fair (2013); Wynwood Art Fair, Miami; UNIX Gallery, Miami (2013) and his work has propelled with unusual fervor amid collectors and the public respectively.
Desire Obtain Cherish lives and works in Los Angeles.
Desire Obtain Cherish
Biography and images courtesy of both the artist and the UNIX gallery in New York.
Art Miami