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.
OUR 2025 OUTSIDER ART FAIR PREVIEWS BEGIN: LOOK FOR THIS SHOWCASE SELECTION OF CLASSIC, EARLY MOSE TOLLIVER PAINTINGS
brutjournal’s coverage of the 2025 Outsider Art Fair New York begins with a look at a group of rare, early-career paintings by the emblematic, American self-taught artist Mose Tolliver (1919-2006), which will be available from Ruffed Grouse Gallery, a small venue based in Narrowsburg, New York. Culled from the holdings of private collectors who acquired the pictures from Tolliver’s home studio in the 1970s, these works represent some of the most sought-after productions that emerged during a formative period of the artist’s career. Free-access article.
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AT THE MUSEO DELLE CULTURE (Mudec) IN MILAN, A GRAND, GLORIOUS PRESENTATION OF ART FROM THE COLLECTION DE L’ART BRUT
The Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland, has organized a knock-out exhibition of emblematic works from its vast holdings for the Museo delle Culture (popularly known as “Mudec”) in Milan. See our photo-filled report about “Dubuffet e l’art brut” (“Dubuffet and Art Brut”), which features paintings, drawings, mixed-media objects, and much more by such emblematic art brut creators as Adolf Wölfli, Aloïse Corbaz, Fleury-Joseph Crépin, Gaston Dufour, Laure Pigeon, Madge Gill, Guillaume Pujolle, Guo Fengyi, and Johann Hauser, and by such Italian autodidacts as Giovanni Bosco, Giovanni Battista Podestà, Carlo Zinelli, Angelo Meani, and Antonio Dalla Valle. Free-access artcle. Avanti!
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A STRANGE LITTLE PAINTING CAPTURES THE MOOD OF THE MOMENT: WEIRDNESS AND UNCERTAINTY
Recently, in England, brutjournal’s London-based artist-correspondent, Cathy Ward, shared with us one of the stranger treasures from her collection of unusual artworks and antiques. A small, undated painting whose creator remains anonymous, its curious character and imagery somehow feel just right for these uncertain times. Here, we take a close look at this odd picture, savoring its strangeness. Free-access article.
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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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