Charlie Cunningham: Coronation of Emil Antonowsky, 2016, polymer clay, acrylic, and enamel on panel, 12" x 10" x 3"

Courtesy of Orchard Art Collective

About:

My work invokes contradictions within subjects both dubiously humorous and revolting. These objects attempt to catalyze the viewer's awareness of humor's underappreciated power, a power contingent on repulsion. Humor's duality of menace and enlightenment is my fascination. I feel humor's multifaceted capacity is often overlooked. This dualism embodies the irony of our own mortal futility. Given our inevitable perishing humor seems itself a cruel joke, or possibly a fundamental necessity for carrying on. We constantly battle forces beset on our destruction, to revert us back to the collective primordial ooze from which we sprang. All are victims of cruel circularity from birth to death. My art portrays this defining human condition with a comedic and grotesque flair. Utilizing campy motifs and visceral materials it searches for humorous optimism in mortality and satirizes the perverse nature of our destruction, both at the hands of time and each other. I see my work as an exploration of our duplicitous existence, ever in awe of the unanswerable irony we find ourselves born into.

"The Coronation of Emil Antonowsky" is an homage of the death of the fictional character in 1987 film Robocop. Emil is a criminal henchman who is dowsed in industrial waste and run over by his cohorts. This scene in the movie has always intrigued me because of it duplicitous nature. I always found my self gleefully cheering on the carnage even though its obvious horror. This sculpture celebrates this cult phenomenon.

Bio:

Charlie Cunningham is an artist originally from Connecticut who currently works in Philadelphia. Charlie received his BFA in painting from Lyme and Academy College of Fine Art and went on to attend The Pennsylvania State University for an MFA in Sculpture. Charlie exhibits his work throughout the country and has been featured at the Governor's Island Art Fair in NYC, Burlington City Arts, and The Delaware Contemporary Art Museum. He is also the recipient of several awards and honors including a Teton Artlab Residency, Governors Island Residency, Rasquache Artist Residency, and the Penn State University Creative Achievement Award. He currently teaches at Tyler School of Art and Saint Joseph's University. He is also the co-founder of the Orchard Art Collective in Frankford, Philadelphia.

www.charliecunninghamart.com