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.

POET MAYA ANGELOU: “IF YOU’RE NOT ANGRY, […] ARE YOU TOO SICK TO BE ANGRY? YOU SHOULD BE ANGRY. USE THAT ANGER. YOU WRITE IT. YOU PAINT IT. YOU DANCE IT. YOU MARCH IT. YOU VOTE IT. YOU DO EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. YOU TALK IT. NEVER STOP TALKING IT. […] YOU MUST NOT BE BITTER. […] BITTERNESS IS LIKE CANCER. IT EATS UPON THE HOST. IT DOESN’T DO ANYTHING TO THE OBJECT OF ITS DISPLEASURE.”

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.
IN SWITZERLAND, THE COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT SAYS, “¡VIVA EL ARTE DE CUBA!”
With its latest exhibition, “Art Brut Cuba,” the Lausanne-based Collection de l’Art Brut, the world’s leading museum focusing on the work of hard-to-classify, self-taught creators living on the margins of mainstream culture and society, vividly captures la onda — the vibe — of one of the most intriguing, if little-known, art-making currents to be found anywhere today. See Edward M. Gómez’s art-filled report about this revealing presentation, which also looks back at the museum’s earlier involvement with Cuban art. Free-access article.

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JOEY TEPEDINO: A BATCH OF DRAWINGS REVEALS ANOTHER SIDE OF AN IRREPRESSIBLE SPIRIT
The Pennsylvania-based self-taught artist Joey Tepedino’s vibrant canvases exude a grab-you-by-the-collar, jump-off-the-walls energy. Their dense, somewhat frenetic compositions pull viewers in for close inspection. At the artist’s recent exhibition at Hal Bromm Gallery in New York, we discovered another expression of Tepedino’s creative mojo in the form of his playful-peculiar drawings. See Edward M. Gómez’s introduction to these small-format images.

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LONDON: A FOND REMEMBRANCE OF MARK PAWSON, AN ARTIST WITH A MISCHIEVOUS — AND DEEPLY HUMANISTIC — VISION
Cathy Ward, brutjournal’s London-based artist-correspondent, recalls the life, collecting obsessions, and subversive wit of the British artist Mark Pawson, who recently died. Deeply involved in the international mail art network, Pawson conceived and organized community events that felt like audience-participation performance-art pieces; he collected everything from wooden “noggins” to clip-on plastic mustaches, while also designing and producing a bounty of clever badges, stickers, and graphics challenging the ethos and mindset of consumer culture. Free-access article.

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99% INSPIRATION: “NO PRIOR ART,” AN EXHIBITION OF UNLIKELY INVENTIONS — OR ARE THEY WORKS OF ART?
In Los Angeles, the exhibition “No Prior Art,” which is on view through May 11 at the Getty Gallery of the Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Library branch, calls attention to a number of artists and artists’ collectives whose works have been rooted in invention. This unexpected show also highlights some unusual creations made by prison inmates; they’re clever design objects that serve functional purposes and may also be seen as imaginatively crafted forms of artistic expression. See brutjournal West Coast Bureau Chief Sarah Fensom's photo-filled report.

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2025 OUTSIDER ART FAIR PREVIEW: THE PAINTER LITTLE WALT DOG FINDS POTENT SYMBOLS OF FREEDOM IN CARS AND THE OPEN ROAD
Little Walt Dog, a self-taught artist from Compton, California, discovered the therapeutic, communicative power of art during the long period of time he served in federal prisons. Now re-establishing himself in Compton, he has moved on and has dedicated his life to making art. His paintings of cars, highways, and everyday scenes from his surroundings celebrate his appreciation of personal freedom and a spirit of fellowship with his community. Ruffed Grouse Gallery will show them at this year’s Outsider Art Fair. Free-access article.

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