Ion Birch (born 1971 in New York, NY) is a contemporary American artist. Birch graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994.[1]
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Birch has worked in the mediums of drawing and painting. Often incorporating black humor and caricature, he creates unusual images that evoke poetic narratives, these works involve a high degree of subjectivity and are often cryptic in their meaning. Birch is best known for his graphite on paper works which incorporate phallic symbols and other erotic imagery. He has stated that these works are a meditation on the nature of repression.[2] Birch has been grouped within broader trends of figurative and conceptual art that focus on contemporary perceptions of the body and sexuality. [3][4][5]
Birch has had solo exhibitions throughout the U.S. and Europe including: The Young Penis at Bellwether, The Spiraling Sun at Freight and Volume Gallery (both in New York), and Policeworms at Neon Gallery in Sweden.[6] In 2005, his drawings were included in the traveling exhibition Contemporary Erotic Drawing (curated by Stuart Horodner, Sara Kellner and Harry Philbrick), which originated at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut.[7] In 2009 he was included in the exhibition “Reconfiguring the Body in American Art, 1820-2009” at The National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts.[8] He has most recently been included in the exhibition "Sex Drive" curated by Stuart Horodner at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.[9]
Birch has been the focus of articles and interviews in publications Les Inrockuptibles [10], Tank Magazine [11], and Me Magazine [12] ; his work has been reviewed in The New York Times [13], The Village Voice [14] and Artnews [15], among others.