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.
STEVEN HIRSCH PAINTS THE ORANGE ONE, THE DEAR LEADER WHO HAS PLAYED AN OVERSIZE ROLE IN CREATING OUR DYSTOPIAN MOMENT
brutjournal contributor Steven Hirsch is a newspaper photographer in New York City’s criminal courts. He’s also a painter with an offbeat sensibility that both skewers and celebrates his tawdry subjects. Not too long ago, Hirsch was in the courtroom when Donald J. Trump was arraigned for a long list of felony charges and later, again, when his trial ended, and his guilty verdict was announced. Hirsch regards his artworks as records of the different periods of his life. Here, we present a portfolio of his pictures of a certain, fake-tanned politician who has played a leading role in shaping the mood and conditions of our current, dystopian times.
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FIELD NOTES FROM THE NEW DYSTOPIA: THE ARTIST ELLA VERES LEARNS TO ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES — AND, BY MAKING ART, TO COPE
“How does my art respond to these difficult times?” The Romanian-born, New York-based visual artist and performer/monologist Ella Veres shares the nature-inspired drawings she has been making lately as a therapeutic way of responding to the feelings of anxiety and uncertainty that have been whipped up by the conditions of our current, unsettling historical moment. See her art-filled report.
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AT OSAKA’S EXPO 2025 WORLD’S FAIR, TWO RELATED EXHIBITIONS SHOWCASE POWERFUL ART MADE BY DISABLED ARTISTS
In two related exhibitions at this year’s festive world’s fair in Osaka, BiG-I (a local institution), Tokyo’s Bunkamura cultural center, and other sponsors have collaborated to present works made by self-taught artists associated with some of Japan’s most innovative art workshops serving disabled people. The range of art genres and media on display is diverse, and the works on view are packed with bold gestures and clever ideas. See our photo-filled report. Free-access article.
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SOUL WORK: IN HER COMPLEX “DRAWINKS,” THE ARTIST JUDITH McNICOL PLUMBS THE DEPTHS OF THE PSYCHE
There was a time when the British artist Judith McNicol felt stuck in a dull job in academia. Still, her creative energy was simmering. Travel, illness, and introspection all became parts of her journey of self-discovery through art-making, resulting in her production of intriguing images with complex, symbol-rich compositions she calls “drawinks.” Here, she describes her art and shares a striking portfolio.
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ALEJANDRO CAIAZZA: ALLUSIONS TO POLITICAL AND SOCIAL REALITIES IN COLORFUL, MIXED-MEDIA COMPOSITIONS
Alejandro Caiazza, who was born in Argentina in 1972, is a New York-based artist who grew up in Venezuela and, in the past, witnessed firsthand the effects of government by dictatorship. In some of his recent works, which the artist has shared with us here, he feels the unease of the current moment.
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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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