Angela Johal angelajohal.com

Angela Johal's work draws from pop culture, consumerism and the sea of images and choices that tend to leave one void. "Embrace them, infuse them with the natural world, re-arrange and decode them, and give them a soul" is her mantra. Ordinary and familiar consumer products are re-created and given a new identity which transforms them into aesthetic works of art.

"I prefer to make art that may suggest the human figure or the natural world rather than create a representation or illusion of something. I like objects that, in a sense, hold some of their own identity. In using neutral recognizable icons, I am free to explore the aesthetic quality of the medium.  The pop art movement reacted to the abstract expressionist's introspective approach. With pop art, the image becomes a structural device in painting, to make art less obscure, but to bring it to the real world again. It celebrated consumerism, where my aim is to take the material, give it a new identity, and use it to make visual poetry with multiple layers of experience, one that is very physical, yet spiritual.

At a distance, my work may be interpreted as a non-representational or abstract painting. As you move closer, identifiable consumer objects begin to emerge with few, if any, focal points. I work to create a visual rhythm (I always work with music on) with shape, texture, color and composition which either calms or invigorates then sends you off into an infinite space where the viewer is allowed to react and interpret the piece, like poetry does.