Zhang Liang's cartoons sum up American pop culture

Illustrator Zhang Liang — who also goes by the name Ray — makes bold, vibrant, and, despite their often NSFW content, cleanly executed cartoons.

Ray graduated from Glasgow School of Art with a masters in illustration in 2012, where he studied with puppet expert John M. Blundall. He also spent a year at the China Academy of Fine Art. Now, Ray lives between London and Beijing, where he works as a freelance illustrator.

Despite his multinational background, Ray’s work is grounded firmly in an obsession with America and its pop culture: junk food, the Simpsons, disco, hip hop, dollars, shrimp, Bowie, Miley Cyrus, Rick Ross, Rihanna, Michael Jackson and even Playboy bunnies feature in his over-the-top acid-coloured illustrations. It’s work that laughs in the face of anyone who takes themselves too seriously.