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.

“WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” THESE ARE THE PRINCIPAL SLOGANS OF “THE PARTY,” THE ALL-POWERFUL RULING ORGANIZATION IN GEORGE ORWELL’S DYSTOPIAN NOVEL, “1984” (WHICH WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1949). IN THE BOOK, ORWELL WRITES, “THE PARTY TOLD YOU TO REJECT THE EVIDENCE OF YOUR EYES AND EARS. IT WAS THEIR FINAL, MOST ESSENTIAL COMMAND.”

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.
SOSHI MATSUNOBE’S NEGATIVE-POSITIVE VISION
Founded by the Israeli-British curator Shai Ohayon, The Container is one of the most vital outposts for experimental and conceptual art on Tokyo’s lively contemporary-art scene. Housed within a replica of an actual, standard, half-length shipping container, the gallery is lodged in a space shared with Bross Tokyo, a cutting-edge hair salon in a stylish city that takes the art of creative coiffure seriously. Now on view at The Container: Soshi Mastunobe’s positive slides made from and mixed up with photographic negatives. Intriguing...

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HERE, THE FILM “VALTON TYLER: FLESH IS FICTION” FINDS A HOME
The self-taught artist Valton Tyler (1944-2017) lived and worked in Dallas, Texas, and its environs. He created a remarkable body of work — oil paintings on canvas, ink drawings on paper, and complex etchings — that remains very hard to classify according to existing style and genre labels. In 2017, brutjournal’s founder, Edward M. Gómez, and the cinematographer Chris Shields made the first-ever film about Tyler’s life and art, which the artist saw before he died. Now, this 42-minute-long film will reside permanently here, on the magazine’s website. It may be viewed in its entirety, free of charge. Watch it and get to know the bright, bizarre world of a techno-baroque visionary.

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Food For Thought Department
DISCOVERIES
  In a small town in rural, northeastern Pennsylvania, a 15-year-old girl’s boldly colored drawings win a prime, competitive spot in a billboard-size mural known as “The Great Wall of Honesdale.” This teen carries a big quiver of Sharpies — and knows how to use them. See our video clip here, too.

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IN AN OPEN FIELD, IT’S A WRAP!

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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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