Anthony McEwan is an influential and prolific artist and illustrator in contemporary urban art for over two decades creating under the name Rugman. He studied at Chelsea Art College before bursting onto the London street art in early 2004. His style is very much influenced from his youth collecting comic books and lowbrow art galvanised with zines, punk and skateboarding of the late 80’s. His love of the crisp black line on white paper stems from these influences such as graffiti art and Pop Art, adding in bursts of bright colours and punk subversive symbolism. He also has an obsession for retro and vintage trading cards from all over the world especially Japan.
His art has been exhibited internationally, in Barcelona, New York, California, Dublin, Stockholm and London. He has exhibited many solo shows through the years most notably at The Saatchi Gallery and subsequently Jealous Gallery in London. He has also been involved in ground-breaking group shows exhibiting alongside the world’s leading street artists, most notably at Cans Festival and Cans 2.
His love of print fuels his passion to explore the boundaries of different techniques and disciplines. This has seen him transition from the stencil to more recently Lino/Wood block and Etching. For over 20 years he’s been cutting extremely intricate stencils which helps him seamlessly transmit into Lino cutting. With a combination of bold images and strong colours, his line drawings are immersed in an abstract atmosphere of energy and liveliness. He takes his inspiration from films, music, skateboarding, cartoons and pop imagery.
"I realised for years I collect vintage I love vintage, fragments of time. My appreciation of sign writing also helped me come to this style of painting. Patch works telling stories of my busy mind. Nostalgia is always front and centre of my work. Theres Massive influence from Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Alicia McCarthy and the Mission school movement of the 90’s and 2000’s. Also my love of Native and folk art shines through".
His style is constantly evolving but still carry’s the rebellious anarchic punk ethos of his youth. And the bold black line which he continues to explore through his new found love of Lino and woodblock. He presents pieces that resemble comfortable and fun times spent laughing and a cheeky quirky sense of humour his creations radiate a hunger for life and an over riding philosophy of vital optimism and not to take yourself or life too seriously. Humour and a childlike vulnerability. Piercing through the chaos and tragedy with a lightning bolt of light humour and happy nostalgia. A primal urge to seek out the beauty in simplicity whilst being executed with illustrative flair.
His art streams seamlessly into the commercial world where he has collaborated successfully in projects with Bulgari, Hypebeast, LeCool magazine, Artrocker, Red Bull, NVIDIA, Edwin Jeans, Lucky 7 caps and Saatchi Gallery. For the Bulgari project, he was chosen as one of six artists in total internationally to represent London, painting the UK flagship Bulgari store on Sloane Street for International Woman’s Day.
His art is collected by comedian and writer Tim Minchin, actors Tom Hardy, Eva Green, Tom Davis, and Stephen Graham, and musicians Maverick Sabre, Mikill Pane, Ben Drew (a.k.a. Plan B), Joey Bada$$, Maxxime of The Prodigy, Travis Barker of Blink 182, and Grant Nicholas of FEEDER. He also did the album cover artwork for FEEDER’s Tallulah album in 2019.