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.
NEW PAINTINGS BY STEVEN HIRSCH: “OH, MOTHER, WELL — I WAS INSPIRED BY MOTHERWELL.”
Lately, brutjournal’s New York-based, contributing artist-photographer Steven Hirsch has been making paintings inspired by the prints and paintings of the iconic abstract expressionist Robert Motherwell (1915-1991). They have served as unexpected sources of inspiration for Hirsch, who, like a jazz musician, riffs off elements of Motherwell’s compositions to create energetic semi-abstractions of his own that tend to be wilder in spirit than those of the modernist pioneer. See our art-filled report.
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PRIMORDIAL FORCES, EARTH ENERGIES, AND A VISION OF A UNIVERSAL SOUL: REDISCOVERING THE ART OF AUDRA SKUODAS
The Lithuanian-born, American artist Audra Skuodas (1940-2019) spent most of her life in Ohio, where she developed a diverse body of work across a range of media and genres. The big, ambitious theme of her art was a deeply philosophical and spiritual search for an understanding of primordial, universal forces; collective consciousness; and the meaning of existence. Her work was not often exhibited in major art centers, but a selection of her paintings and works on paper is on view at Cristin Tierney Gallery in New York. See our illuminating report.
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SUSAN SPANGENBERG’S “OUT OF MY HEAD” DOLLS GIVE POWERFUL EXPRESSION TO DEEPLY PERSONAL THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS
The artist Susan Spangenberg, who is also an actress who enjoys playing the roles of characters in Shakespeare plays, has further developed her series of hand-sewn “healing dolls” with the first in a new group of “Out of My Head Dolls” whose thoughts are visually expressed in a clever way. Here, the artist explains what inspired her to produce these latest therapeutic — and deeply personal — mixed-media works.
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EXQUISITE, CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE ART BRUT: A TRAVELING EXHIBITION EXPLORES ABSTRACTION AND DREAMS
In the short period of time since it opened to the public just before the start of the recent coronavirus pandemic, Tokyo Shibuyakoen-dori Gallery has become one of the most important venues in all of Japan for the presentation of works made by self-taught art-makers. Recently, Edward M. Gómez, brutjournal’s editor in chief and a longtime specialist in art brut and also in Japanese modern art, curated the gallery’s “Abstract Labyrinths: Dreaming Color and Form” exhibition. Now that its Tokyo run has ended, it’s moving on to two other venues in the capital region. See our article about this colorful presentation of works made by seven contemporary art brut creators, with a unique installation design conceived by Atelier Bow-Wow. Free-access article.
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OUR brutjournal WITNESS TO HISTORY: LA, LA, LA, LA, LAPPING UP LUIGI
The photographer Steven Hirsch shoots street scenes and hard-news pix for New York’s tabloids, for which he has long documented the comings and goings of crooks, miscreants, and assorted troublemakers in downtown Manhattan’s criminal courts. He is also a painter and a regular contributor to brutjournal of his more experimental photos and art. He was at the courthouse on December 23, 2024, when Luigi Mangione, the alleged fatal shooter of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in early December, arrived for his arraignment. Here is a portfolio of his news photos of that historic event and of his artist’s take on that rather unique source material. Free-access article.
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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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