Ron English- POPaganda – Abraham Obama Vinyl Sculpture in Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork
Ron English- POPaganda’s Abraham Obama vinyl art sculpture is one of the most audacious and conceptually layered pieces in the evolution of Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork. Created in 2008 during the height of President Barack Obama’s first campaign, this limited edition collectible (edition of 50) merges two of America’s most culturally significant presidents—Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama—into a singular hybrid bust. Standing 10 inches tall by 15 inches boxed, and produced in vinyl by MINDstyle, this figure embodies Ron English- POPaganda’s signature approach: visual collision, political parody, and cultural remix, all filtered through the lens of pop surrealism and graffiti-inspired fine art. The sculpture presents Obama with Lincoln’s iconic facial hair and historical attire, challenging the viewer to reexamine not only the legacy of leadership but also the collective symbols of American hope and progress. The packaging reinforces this fusion with a bold, saturated yellow and green colorway and English’s graffiti-styled hand lettering. It’s equal parts street culture artifact and fine art satire. With this work, English transforms campaign-era idealism into a collectible statement piece, collapsing timelines and creating a new icon meant to provoke, amuse, and unsettle.
Visual Satire and Political Remix in 3D Form
This sculpture is more than a mashup—it’s a sculptural commentary on how America constructs its heroes. By merging Lincoln, the president who ended slavery, with Obama, the first Black president of the United States, Ron English- POPaganda uses Street Pop Art’s remix culture to speak directly to race, legacy, and the mythology of leadership. The fusion is visually seamless yet conceptually jarring, forcing viewers to ask whether America’s dreams of progress are genuine or simply surface-level branding. English has long employed pop culture icons in his work—Mickey Mouse, Ronald McDonald, superheroes—manipulating them into grotesque or exaggerated versions of themselves. In Abraham Obama, however, the satire is more refined, bordering on reverence while still critiquing the idealization of political figures. It questions whether Obama’s image was being mythologized in real time, turning him into an icon before history could judge the substance of his presidency. That complexity is central to graffiti and pop-infused art: using popular imagery not to worship, but to dissect.
Street Culture Meets Designer Toy Aesthetic
As part of the collectible art toy movement, Abraham Obama also bridges the gap between street-level art and gallery collectible culture. The piece follows a lineage of vinyl sculpture rooted in graffiti aesthetics, lowbrow art, and limited edition consumer drops. Much like street art stickers and mural culture, these figures carry the urgency of ephemera and rebellion—but rendered in high-quality materials with gallery-level craft. The use of vinyl makes the work accessible in both material and tone, a tactile evolution of street pop's visual ethos. These types of sculptures are the three-dimensional cousins of stenciled posters and wheatpasted satire, designed to occupy the same cultural headspace while entering private collections. Like a Banksy piece pulled from a wall, Abraham Obama is designed to be portable without losing its streetwise edge.
Legacy of Political Pop in Urban Visual Culture
Ron English- POPaganda’s Abraham Obama is one of the most definitive statements of political remix in the contemporary art landscape. It belongs to a genre that not only challenges political narratives but also reframes how visual culture mythologizes leadership. In the hands of a graffiti pop veteran like English, the sculpture becomes more than a novelty—it becomes an archive of American hopes, contradictions, and media-driven spectacle. Within the expanding lexicon of Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork, Abraham Obama stands as a hybrid icon—part toy, part bust, part satire, part prayer. It encapsulates the power of street-level aesthetics to shape and reflect the nation’s deepest cultural tensions, all while making it possible to hold a piece of visual revolution right in your hands.