FACULTY

Ron Kovatch

rkovatch@illinois.edu | website | CV

Ron Kovatch is a professor of Art specializing in Ceramics and Drawing. After a long career in the field of Ceramics, Ron reinvented himself as a works on paper artist. While currently focusing on abstract portraiture, Ron's work investigates social and political issues, and the duality of beauty and ugly, as well as anatomy, and the complex drama of simply negotiating humanity. Being naturally curious regarding style, material and process, Ron employs and exploits both high and low material, collage, spray paint, found images, traced images, symbols and archetypes. Being keenly interested in language, Ron appropriates literature, Tom Waits lyrics, fragments harvested from eavesdropping, newscasts, and stuff he invents to serve as prosaic inspiration for the drawings and the titles.

Since 1989, Ron Kovatch has taught and continues to teach all levels of Ceramics. Ron's studio production has shifted toward drawing so he also teaches all levels of Drawing including Life Drawing, as well as Drawing 1 and 2.

Artist Statement

This current series of work stems from a larger body of portraits that reference both the mundane and fantastic nature of contemporary life. The subjects of my exploration are ambiguous rather than specific identities, yet universal human specimens that embody the essence of human nature and existence. These portraits celebrate the negotiations and dramas of daily life. My intention is that each image possesses equal resonance with the audience as it does with me, knowing fully, in fact expecting that we may not be responding to identical stimulus. That fact that communication, miscommunication, and interpretation with spoken and visual language at best is an inexact experience. The urge to learn about and understand our contemporary context is insatiable. Information is ubiquitous and at times overwhelming if not confusing. Contemporary life seems to flirt with chaos.

Concept, process and material work in tandem to build these portraits. Responding to found images, employing accessible unorthodox materials, working spontaneously and intuitively with materials and prose (titles), help create iconic portraits that communicate on many levels. Superficial advertisements, news headlines, fashion magazines, lyrics from Tom Waits music, are significant motivation for each image. The harvested images are erased of their personal, political, celebrity, or corporate identity, and reduced to similar anonymous, basic human characteristics. The process of erasing (subtracting identity) is an important step in creating (adding) a new identity, or persona. I am not interested or capable of absorbing every individual human story, so these portraits attempt to expose the essence of a collective existence.

My work is improvisational in concept and process. However since the topics I tend to focus on revolve around the idea of human experience, and existing in a complex modern world, the human figure dominates the picture plane. I am interested in the fringe, gender ambiguity, the conflict and blending of beauty and ugly, the weird and often mundane nature of negotiating life. The notion of duality serves as a standard in concept and process. I am interested in the delicate line that separates man and woman, good and evil, hope and despair. Although there is abundant life in the extremes, it is the area where the definite is elusive and a particular slice of humanity exists, that interests me.

My work tends to be stylistically disloyal to any single look, process, or material. Generally the work falls under the heading of mixed media/collage on paper. Drawing. I act upon whims of conceptual relevance, react to news events, cultural ethics, prejudice, violence, truth and lies. The drawing becomes my editorial page.