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THE ROMANCE OF RUBBISH: THE ART OF THE JAPANESE CREATOR GATARO
The artist known as “Gataro” works as a janitor in a shopping center in Hiroshima. He makes vivid drawings of dust balls, brooms, and his surroundings using only found materials. Nobumasa Kushino, a leading promoter of Japanese art brut, introduces Gataro’s work. Coming soon.
TOKYO: “THE PASSION OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT” PRESENTED BY AN AUSTRIAN PHOTOGRAPHER WHO KNEW THE AMERICAN PAINTER
The Austrian-born photographer, journalist, poet, and visual artist Roland Hagenberg, who has long been based in Japan, lived and worked in New York in the 1980s. There, he got to know Jean-Michel Basquiat and photographed the young American artist. In Tokyo, Hagenberg has presented a tribute exhibition inspired by Basquiat’s tragic-heroic life story. Free-access article.
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ELLA VERES: A MONOLOGUE PERFORMANCE EVOLVES OUT OF BITTERSWEET MEMORIES AND LOTS OF OLD JUNK
The Romanian-born, New York-based writer and artist Ella Veres brings humor and befuddlement about her adopted country to her assemblage works made with found materials. Her performance monologues are also impressionistic collages. Here, she ruminates on the essence of the trash she transforms into art, each piece of which she regards as a gem. Free access.
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EMMANUEL HERZ’S JELLYFISH INVASION IN AN OLD-WORLD CAFÉ
Recently, at the café/restaurant Remor in Geneva, Switzerland, we stumbled upon a stunning exhibition of the artist Emmanuel Herz’s festive, mysterious, and enchanting “Fascinantes Méduses” (“Fascinating Jellyfish”), a group of sculptures and related paintings that had taken over the old joint’s ceiling lamps and walls. We were smitten — and maybe also bitten. Coming soon.
PHOTOMACHINÉES: VERNACULAR PHOTOGRAPHY IN SWITZERLAND
Recently on view at the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland: More than 450 photographs dating from the late 1800s and well into the 20th century, all made by unknown image-makers, many of whom manipulated their material to create fantasy pictures packed with personal or indecipherable meanings. A rich serving of vernacular photography. Coming soon.
HAROLD GRANUCCI: GEOMETRY = A PRECISE ARTISTIC VISION
Born in 1916, Harold Granucci worked as an accountant and furniture-store owner; after retiring, he dedicated his time to creating compositions rooted in mathematically modeled patterns. Granucci, who died at the age of 90, left an artistic oeuvre that is still surfacing and was recently presented at the 2023 Outsider Art Fair in New York. See our report, coming soon.
VIEW THE FILM, FREE OF CHARGE: “VALTON TYLER: FLESH IS FICTION”
The self-taught artist Valton Tyler (1944-2017) lived and worked in Dallas, Texas, and its environs. He created remarkable works — oil paintings, ink drawings on paper, complex etchings — that remain hard to classify according to existing style or genre labels. In 2017, Edward M. Gómez (brutjournal’s founder) and cinematographer Chris Shields made the first-ever film about Tyler’s life and art, which the artist saw before he died. 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. Free access to the article and the film.
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