Ronan Somerville

Ronan Somerville is an artist from Suffolk. He is inspired rather ironically by the lack of culture in his area - when you have nothing around you to ignite you, you have to create yourself. His aesthetic is defined by busy pen drawings of surreal mindscapes in a graphic, comic book style, but applied to various media - from drawing and 3D to virtual reality, street art, and installation. He has gathered attention at local exhibitions and had works selected in competitions held by the Royal Academy. He looks to expand on this exponentially, and continue to develop his style and career.

J'adoube

Like most of my other works, this piece is an outward communication of my internal experiences. The vibrant, hustling imagery is a compilation of notes from my personal sketchbooks. This is translated into the iconic format of a chess game. The pieces become living characters that I conceived, while the board becomes a map of my mind. The drawing style stemmed from one of my comic-strip depictions of the human brain, and now references the insanity of the likes of 'Where's Wally' and Heinz Edelmann's 'Yellow Submarine'. The game of chess is an important symbol, as a timeless game of war depicting a medieval battle. I have taken this literal meaning and twisted it into a metaphor for the mind - notably my own - and it's many conflicts and complexities. The idea of 'playing the game' is essential to symbolising the fragility and dynamism of the mind.

UKYA PROJECTS:

UKYA City Takeover: Nottingham 2019