Statement:

Originally from Boise, Idaho, Evan Paul English is an artist working and residing in Brooklyn, New York. Evan collects vintage floral ephemera that inspire his multidisciplinary practice of painting, installation art, ready-made sculpture, murals, and tattoos. Using his collection as materials to create his work, Evan explores relationships between gender, class, the experience of growing up queer in America. He is interested in the ways in which individual self-understanding is shaped through materials and objects, utilizing decorative motifs to subvert stereotypes and ask deeper questions about gender narratives. He does not view florals as a purely decorative art form, but as a way of describing social, cultural, and self reflections.

His interest in identity and self-reclamation simultaneously inspires his work as a tattoo artist.  He co-owns Yarrow Studio, a multidisciplinary art-focused tattoo studio and inclusive safe space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. His recent work involves reimagining American vintage floral designs into tattoos. Evan views this as an act of reclamation, giving new life to dated and conservative floral motifs.  

Working closely with these fabrics, the idea of magnification informs his current body of paintings on canvas. Using a small viewfinder, he finds compelling compositions within the fabrics and enlarges them to various size abstract paintings. Through distortion, enlargement, visual and spatial immersion, a new experience with a familiar motif arises, making space for contemplation and revelation.

News:

Evan was recently an Artist Fellow at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art and participated in the 2020 edition of SPRING/BREAK Art Show in New York City. He recently exhibited work at Fridman Gallery and had a solo exhibition with at Chashama in November, 2021.