THIS IS THE PLACE FOR DISCOVERIES AND DISCUSSIONS OF THE MOST INVENTIVE ART FORMS – ALL KINDS OF ART THAT IS FAR-OUT, FANTASTIC, FREE-SPIRITED, FUN, FUNKY, PHENOMENAL AND GOOD FOR THE SOUL.
RECENT FEATURES
**ROB OBER: NO IDEOLOGY, PLEASE. THIS ART IS REAL.
“I am suspicious of art informed or directed by ideas or any ideology,” the American artist Rob Ober says. Keeping it real, authentic, shot through with a real pulse, and wildly colorful, Ober’s work feels irresistibly spontaneous and fresh. See. React. Paint. Here, the artist, who grew up all over the place, shares some thoughts about his art. Note to self: We’re in love with those gators. Click here to see article.
**JAMAICAN INTUITIVES: IT’S RAS DIZZY’S WORLD
Ras Dizzy (circa 1932-2008) was one of the most important of the Jamaican Intuitives, a group of self-taught artists whose works began to earn recognition in Jamaica in the late 1970s and notably contributed to shaping a sense of the postcolonial, independent island country’s national cultural identity. A selection of Dizzy’s works from a unique private collection. Click here to see article.
**A BIG, BOLD NEW BOOK: FRANÇOIS JAUVION’S TRIBUTE TO ART BRUT AND OUTSIDER ART MASTERS
In 2020, the French artist François Jauvion’s large-format book L’imagier singulier was published. It featured his own illustrations and texts by various specialists about the lives and accomplishments of numerous art brut and outsider artists. Now, a second volume of Jauvion’s big opus is here. See our overview of L’imagier singulier, Tome 2. Click here to see article.
**ARTIST CATHY WARD: IN LONDON, THE PSYCHIC, SOULFUL MESSAGES OF “THE ORACLES”
Like many art-makers, what with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic period and other concerns, the London-based artist Cathy Ward, who works in various media and genres, has wrestled with numerous, big challenges. Recently, as if purging the negative energy surrounding her, Ward sat down in a corner of her home to create a series of bold, mystical paintings. “They allowed me to reset myself,” she says. See a portfolio of these powerful new pictures. Click here to see article.
**PHOTOGRAPHER JOEL SIMPSON: CAPTURING NATURE’S BIZARRE CREATIVE SPIRIT — AND POWER
The photographer Joel Simpson travels widely in search of unusual natural rock formations and strange textures in the surface of the earth. Here, a selection of new photos from Simpson’s latest expeditions to the Southwest of the U.S.A. illustrates a theoretical approach he has developed to appreciating such striking images. As he notes, it leads viewers “from traditional landscape through abstraction, figuration, and finally to fiction." Click here to see article.
**OFF THE WALL: NEW YORK CITY STREET POETS AND VISIONARIES, THE KENNETH GOLDSMITH COLLECTION
In the 1980s, Kenneth Goldsmith, a poet and university professor, began tearing off anonymously made, handwritten ads, religious-themed proclamations, and oddball declarations that he found posted on walls and lampposts on the streets of New York City. A bemusing selection of such bizarre “poetry” was recently shown at Andrew Edlin Gallery. Click here to see article.
**GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: EMMANUEL HERZ’S JELLYFISH INVASION
Earlier this year, at the café/restaurant Remor in Geneva, Switzerland, we stumbled upon a stunning display of Emmanuel Herz’s festive “Fascinantes Méduses” (“Fascinating Jellyfish”), a group of sculptures and paintings that had taken over the old joint’s ceiling lamps and walls. We were smitten — and maybe also bitten. See out photo-filled report. Click here to see article.
IKUMI KAKIHARA’S NEW WORKS, NOW ON VIEW: “A CAT HAS NINE LIVES”
Ikumi Kakihara is a Tokyo-based artist whose boldly colored, spare new paintings and objects simultaneously evoke the punchy spirits of Fluxus, punk, and surrealism. A powerful scarlet red dominates most of her creations, and some very basic words with dramatically contrasting meanings serve as the main elements of her varied compositions. See our photo-filled report about Kakihara’s current exhibition, where ambiguous emotion and a gentle sense of humor play roles as big and important as the artist’s potent palette.
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ARTIST ANGELA ROGERS: “DANCE, SPIRIT, DANCE!”
Angela Rogers is a self-taught artist who, following brain surgery years ago, developed a seizure disorder. To date, she has created original tarot-card decks and a multitude of “Poppets” — small, mixed-media figures made with fabric, colored thread, cowrie shells, beads, little ornaments, and other found materials. They’re derived from the well-known principal characters of the tarot, the centuries-old card set that has long been used to play games and as a tool for fortune-telling. This year, Rogers finished work on “Spirit,” her largest sculptural work ever. Here, she describes its production and character, and her plans for this strange creation with a powerful aura.
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GLOW! BILL WESTMORELAND CHASES THE LIGHT IN A STUDY OF ITS CHANGES AND ALLURE
Over the years, brutjournal’s visual director, the New York-based photographer Bill Westmoreland, has aimed his camera at a wide range of subjects, from Broadway actors to jazz crooners, rock’n’rollers, tattooed hipsters, and even big plastic bags stuffed with garbage, shimmering in the city’s eerie nocturnal light. Here, we present a portfolio of Bill’s photos of a barn in rural Pennsylvania as it glows with luminous color through the changing seasons. Enjoy this essay in expressive form and the magical power of light.
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TRANSFORMING THE EVERYDAY: IN TOKYO, AN EXHIBITION PRESENTS SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS’ IMAGINATIVE ADVENTURES IN BRICOLAGE
Located in the heart of Tokyo’s popular Shibuya district, Tokyo-to Shibuyakoen-dori Gallery, an annex of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, is one of the most important venues in all of Japan for the presentation of paintings, drawings, mixed-media objects, and other creations produced by self-taught artists. Its latest exhibition, “Encounter With the Known: Welcome to the World of Autobiographical Bricolage!”, features the creations of six self-taught artists, from dazzling, exuberant, large-scale collages to some bizarrely beautiful sculptures made of wooden chopsticks. See our photo-filled report.
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ASHTON HERRES: DRAWING ON SCI-FI, JAZZ, AND OTHER SOURCES — AND DRAWING OUT IN PUBLIC, TOO
Little New Hampshire was too small for the young artist Ashton Herres, who arrived in New York City about two years ago and has thrown himself into art-making, using one of downtown Manhattan’s liveliest, most popular parks as his open-air studio. His partly abstract, partly fantastical drawings are packed with unusual characters and sprawling, throbbing organic forms. See our introduction to this emerging image-maker’s still-evolving, singular style.
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Click to see past articles. Newest articles followed by older articles, listed according to their publication dates.
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