The characters born from the imagination of British artist Jon Burgerman are now super recognisable, at least to those in the industry. His are real imaginary friends that he himself defines as «playful and humorous, but hiding a collective anxiety due to the turbulent world we live in». From canvases to graffiti, Burgerman also collaborates with various brands, especially Asian ones, through which his characters come to life and become jewellery, as in the case of the collaboration with Dan Life. The real turning point in his artistic career came when he moved to New York. Here, it all started on social media, where he involved a large community, so much so that he now has almost 150K followers. On social media, he starts important collaborations, such as the one with Facebook, which has enabled a large audience to participate in online tutorials and to get closer to his art.

Defining himself as a ‘doodler’, Jon Burgerman fully espouses the instinctive approach that is inevitably reflected in his works, a mixture of bold colours and soft shapes, often hovering between the comic and the dramatic, the simple and the complex. The vivid expressions of abstract, cartoon-like forms are key elements of the works. Amorphous, genderless masses are stacked, crushed and delicately balanced together, often on the verge of collapsing or vanishing completely. The use of spray paint allows for a fluid and spontaneous creation, giving the pieces a free and improvised quality.

Jon Burgerman’s paintings often present an internal conflict: they are simultaneously hard and soft, friendly and frightening, happy and sad. The characters in the works possess multifaceted personalities with various emotional states, here represented on a single plane. As the artist also explains in his statement, his characters reflect a generational mental health crisis, exacerbated by climate anxiety, post-pandemic, limited political choices and financial insecurity. Despite the troubled intentions, the light and colourful nature of the works offers a positive perspective, suggesting that there is always room for hope and joy, or at least, that is what the artist feels when creating his works.

Courtesy Jon Burgerman