Make it Pop
© Ernesto Beckford, Chadds Ford PA (2021-2025)
The collages presented here use the flat, saturated look of posters and advertising to transform everyday scenes into icons of contemporary Pop. Built from paper, watercolor, and pastels, these works exaggerate color, flatten surfaces, and stage encounters where tradition collides with consumer culture.
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Saint Sebastian Laminated
The body of Saint Sebastian in torment is paired with a fashion model’s face and printed on metal, linking martyrdom to advertising and treating the figure like a mass-produced product.
20 x 14.5 x 1 inches
Metal Print
Year: 2023
Gucci Xmas
A woman in a floral gown sits among ornaments, fabrics, and jewelry, framed by the Gucci logo. The holiday scene is overloaded with luxury, turning Christmas into a display of branding and consumer excess. The image reads like an advertisement that replaces devotion with shopping.
12 x 9.05 x 0.1 inches
Paper Collage
Year: 2022
Enlightened Man
A male figure radiates in bold, saturated hues, his outline sharp against a billboard-bright background. The halo of light around him feels less sacred than stylized—part guru, part advertisement. Serenity is rendered in high contrast, hinting at how spirituality itself is repackaged and sold in the bright language of self-help culture.
13 x 17 x 0.1 inches
Mixed Media Collage
Year: 2023
Dressed for a Walk
A baroque head is placed on a modern body in a surreal setting. Neon colors and sharp contrasts enhance the humor, creating irony as history and modernity collide.
12.5 x 9.5 x 0.1 inches
Mixed Media Collage
Year: 2021
Japanese Stool
A man in a tailored suit sits on a simple metal stool, posed as if in a Bloomingdale's ad. His head, borrowed from a traditional Japanese ink drawing, jars against the modern blue suit he wears. The blank walls and bold ink designs behind him sharpen the contrast, turning the scene into something oddly kitsch—where advertising and tradition collide in a slick image.
10.25 x 8 x 0.1 inches
Paper Collage with watercolor
Year: 2023
Dog and Man
This collage takes the cover of a real estate magazine and fills it with bold, almost cartoonish colors. A man sits quietly with his dog stretched out at his feet, a familiar domestic scene turned into advertising. The bright hues give it a retro-parody appeal, where a man and his dog companion are staged to help sell houses.
11 x 8 x 0.1 inches
Mixed Media Collage
Year: 2022
Arrows and Sorrows
A modern woman, reminiscent of the Hollywood icon whose skirt blew upward in a famous scene, is here entangled in the grip of medieval zeal. Satire and history collide: glamour meets fanaticism in a bright ad-like image. The absurdity sharpens the critique, as cultural icons of desire are dragged into the theater of punishment.
18.5 x 11.5 x 0.1 inches
Mixed Media Collage
Year: 2024