At first glance the works of Anna Zemánková seem to document the vegetable kingdom. It does not take much to realize that these are not a mere representation of nature but of a more secret inner world.
MAMADOU CISSÉ
The theme of his works is the imaginary city represented with bird’s-eye perspectives, futuristic and kaleidoscopic visions.
STEVE ASHBY
Ashby’s “fixing-up” are incredible examples of his ability to synthesize complex situations without depriving them of a humorous and sometimes erotic vein.
YONEJI INAMURA
Yoneji Inamura, the protagonist of this story, spent six years collecting beetles of different varieties with the aim of creating a sculpture dedicated to the popular Buddhist divinity Senju Kannon.
INNER NECESSITY: “a book” that had to be done
Through a project on Kickstarter Léon Howahr wants to publish a book that deals with Art Brut and Outsider Art in a “preparatory” and complete way at the same time, without forgetting its aesthetics and structure.
RICARDO CAVOLO AND THE OUTSIDERS
The collaborations that Ricardo Cavolo continues to include in his resume are countless, from Alexander McQueen to Zara, Nike, Urban Outfitters, Bally, Converse, and still some special edition stickers for Chiquita. In short, a man full of ideas located in Madrid.
MICHEL NEDJAR
Michel Nedjar was born in Soisy-sous-Monmorency (France) in 1947. Third of seven children, his family is Jewish and linked to Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions.
HASSAN
Of Senegalese origins, Hassan is located in a Barcelona. He lives lonely on the street in a neighborhood that hosts many wine warehouses: the wine boxes are the tables on which he makes his drawings.
UTOPIX
Utopix is the work and passionate path of Jo Pillet and his family.
It is a live in sculpture, exhibition spaces (indoor and outdoor), it is sculptures-games.
KIYOSHI TOYA
Kiyoshi Toya’s drawings are only in appearance the objective representations of real cities, made with extreme detail and precision.
ATELIER ZONE-ART
Zone-Art is a belgian atelier located in Heusy (Verviers), about 30 km from Liège. The facility has been recognized as an independent association since 2012.
MISLEIDYS CASTILLO PEDROSO and her pristine world
My fascination with pop, bright color and the inner universes inevitably led me to Misleidys Francisca Castillo Pedroso.
FABRIZIO MOLINARIO: from the gun to the brush
A few months ago I was at the Rizomi Art Gallery in Parma: here I saw some works that fascinated me a lot. They were small cubic canvases, covered on all sides by blue brushstrokes in which men and fish swam in perfect harmony.
ELKE TANGETEN: the art of embroidery before it was mainstream
The first time I saw Elke Tangeten’s works was 2015 and I was at the presentation of the collective artistic project “Ave Luïa”, produced by La “S” Grand Atelier between 2013 and 2015 and exhibited at the Collection ABCD in Montreuil (Paris) for a few days.
#SurvivalKit – Part 3: AUDIO
PART 3 – AUDIOThe (outsider) survival kit to defeat quarantine boredom. We saw documentaries (#SurvivalKit – Part 1) and we virtually went to galleries and museums (#SurvivalKit – Part 2). After all this effort, it’s time to stop and put on your headphones.Yes, because today I propose some audio files relating to Outsider Art. Among podcasts, audio […]
#SurvivalKit – Part 2: EXHIBITIONS & PROJECTS
We collect some interesting links from the outsider art world to lighten (as far as possible) the isolation situation due to the Covid-19.
#SurvivalKit – Part 1: DOCUMENTARIES
We have collected some interesting links from the outsider art world – from free films to virtual exhibitions, from podcasts to music playlists – to lighten (as far as possible) the isolation situation in which we are finding ourselves due to the Covid emergency.
ITSUO KOBAYASHI: food love before any #foodporn
For 28 years Itsuo Kobayashi worked as a chef in a Soba restaurant (traditional Japanese dishes with buckwheat pasta) and in a supply center for school meals in Saitama.
GORODKA: between sustainability and art
44-51-24-38 N 1-14-06-27-E
This is the GPS code to locate Gorodka, a place that does not appear on maps. However, it really exist.
LELA LOMBARD AND EX NIHILO: a Photoshop Dada
Lela Lombard’s digital work is pure psychic automatism that remains in an immaterial level and is difficult to perceive with the normal senses, as a result of an intuitive elaboration that finds its creative process in “nothing”.
MICHELANGELO LOVELACE
MICHELANGELO LOVELACE(1960 | Cleveland, USA) For a long time art has been made to be understood by everyone. You can easily get scared by looking at the demons that adorn medieval churches and find out how the image should be understood by anyone. To do this, it was necessary to simplify.Michelangelo Lovelace is like this: he […]
DAVID THOMAS ROBERTS
David Thomas Roberts is a self-taught painter, poet, composer and important pianist born in 1955 in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He showed me his work and answered some of my questions to better understand his relationship with Outsider Art.
NANJING OUTSIDER ART STUDIO
The Nanjing Outsider Art Studio, founded by Guo Haiping in 2006, is the first experience of an Art Therapy laboratory in China. I asked some questions to find out more about this reality.
A short logbook for a weekend of drawings and fresh croissants
Breve diario di bordo per un weekend tra disegni e croissant For a really fast decision, I found myself in Paris with Rizomi Gallery to set up and follow our booth during the first days of Ddessin Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair.In this event Rizomi did not focus on “outsiders”, and it brought Andrea Saltini, protagonist of the last exhibition at […]
TOMMASO BULDINI
The world of Tommaso Buldini (1979, Bologna – Italy) is made up of innards, devils, bodies (whole or in pieces), Medusa’s heads and skeletons, in addition to other references such as medieval representations, Gummo movie, Méliès, Bosch and Art Brut. I decided to start the new Contamination section of Outsider Art Now with an article about him. In fact, Contamination includes […]
Art Brut Film Olomouc 2018
On March 22, 2018, at the Muzeum umění Olomouc (Czech Republic) will take place the seventh edition of the film festival Art Brut Film Olomouc.I asked Pavel Konečný, organizer of the Festival, some questions to find out more about this event and the program of this year. G) Art Brut Film Olomouc reaches the seventh edition. Can you briefly tell […]
ALOÏSE CORBAZ and the meaning of love
Aloïse Corbaz was a cultured and educated woman who worked ad a private tutor at the German court of Kaiser Wilhelm II, where she taught his pastor’s daughter.
MARTÍN RAMÍREZ
MARTÍN RAMÍREZ(1895-1960 | MEXICO/CALIFORNIA) Martín Ramírez was born in 1895 in Jalisco, Mexico. Widely considered one of the 20th century’s self-taught masters of drawing, he produced some 500 drawings and collages during the 15 years he spent as a psychiatric inmate at DeWitt State Hospital in Auburn, California.Thrust by political and religious upheavals caused by […]
Outliers in Washington
OUTLIERS AND AMERICAN VANGUARD ARTNational Gallery of Art, Washington: 28.01.18 – 13.05.18High Museum of Art, Atlanta: 24.06.18 – 30.09.18 Los Angeles County Museum of Art: 18.11.18 – 18.03.19 Outliers and American Vanguard Art is the first major exhibition to explore the key moments in American art history when avant-garde artists and outsiders intersected, and how their […]
Notes (OAF, Paris 2017)
Outsider Art Fair, Paris – October 19-22, 2017 The Outsider Art Fair (Paris edition) has really satisfied all tastes, from the big names of art brut to new discoveries and new participations. For example, the Outsider Art Museum in Amsterdam contributed to “refresh” this edition bringing a number of very interesting artists. Attracted by a small drawing […]
Supermen
Today is June 1st. Exactly 50 years ago, in 1967, a LP came out of the history: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, one of the biggest pearls of Beatles.The revolution of this album is not only in music, but also in the cover. The Fab Four were immortalized at the center of a colorful […]
Ovartaci Fields
Presented by Museum Ovartaci & Business Park SkejbyLocation: Business Park Skejby, 8200 AarhusStarting from: May 10, 2017 Museum Ovartaci is dedicated to the history of the psychiatric treatment and art produced by patients at the Risskov Psychiatric Hospital (Aarhus, Denmark). It is a part of Aarhus University Hospital and resides and the same buildings as the Psychiatric […]
MICHAEL PELLEW
I discovered Michael Pellew at the New York’s Outsider Art Fair 2017 and I fell in love with his works.
OVARTACI
OVARTACI(1984-1985 | DENMARK) Louis Marcussen was born at Ebeltolf, Denmark on 26 September 1894. Louis grew up with a large number of siblings – some of them died in an early age or had various disabilities – in one of the most beautiful houses in Ebeltoft. Already in his youth Louis was absorbed with yoga, Buddhism […]
HENRY DARGER
HENRI DARGER (1892-1973, CHICAGO, USA) “The story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion”, or 15.000 pages discovered by chance by Nathan Lerner, the owners of a Chicago room where a lonely man spent part of his life.Henry […]
Art brut & design?
Yesterday, for Varese Design Week, Nicola Mazzeo (Rizomi Art Brut) and I were invited as Artètipi to talk about the possible relationships between art brut and design. Two worlds seemingly incongruous.Design, in its various meanings, creates consumer objects, places, spaces, and relationships between people through a creative solution to the problems analyzed by an active eye on the […]
Outsiders are still in Venice
Three “outsider” artists at Venice Biennale 2017 Open to the public from Saturday May 13th to Sunday November 26th 2017, at the Giardini and the Arsenale, the 57th International Art Exhibition, titled VIVA ARTE VIVA, will be curated by Christine Marcel and organized by La Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta. The Exhibition will also include 84 National Participations […]
PHILADELPHIA WIREMAN
PHILADELPHIA WIREMAN(USA) The Philadelphia Wireman is the working name given to an unknown artist responsible for approximately 1.200 small-scale wire-frame sculptures that were found by Robert Leich, abandoned on a street outside a transient home in Philadelphia’s South Street in the late 1970s.“It was an accident that the worked survived,” collector and dealer John Ollman […]
25 years
Outsider Art Fair, New York – January 19-22, 2017 A week ago, between the jet lag and long coffee, I went to the Outsider Art Fair which turns 25 this year, like me. Founded by Sanford L. Smith, to its beginnings it counted 25 exhibitors. Now there were 66 galleries from 9 countries.Unlike the beginning, now […]
ADAM GRIPPO
Adam Grippo began drawing at the age of 30. His enigmatic works have been described as unique and mysterious.
ORESTE FERNANDO NANNETTI
The Law 180 of May 13, 1978, also known as the Basaglia Law, allowed the closure of the Italian psychiatric hospitals: patients were transferred to specific departments of the hospitals, and the buildings were gradually abandoned or converted.
MOHAMMAD KAZEMZADEH
MOHAMMAD KAZEMZADEH (1992, IRAN) Mohammad Kazemzadeh is a young iranian artist born on January 31, 1992. He should have been born with a twin, but doctors could only bring him to this world.Early childhood years prior to primary school, made Mohammad’s disabilities apparent and he began speech and behavior therapy under the supervision of specialists. […]
NORIMITSU KOKUBO
NORIMITSU KOKUBO (1995, SHIGA PREFECTURE, JAPAN) Norimitsu Kokubo started drawing in the period of elementary school, to “exorcise” his introversion and lacking in social skills.He would keep drawing quietly in notebooks and any other pieces of paper available, such as the back sides of calendars or advertisement flyers.His amazing meticulous works are cover by details: […]
CHIYUKI SAKAGAMI
CHIYUKI SAKAGAMI(1961 | JAPAN) Chiyuki Sakagami was born in 1961 in Japan. Now she lives in Kobe, but she claims that she was born 6 billion years ago in the Precambrian sea, where the fish have sought her to survive in the ocean waters. After exploring different continents she has found herself on a volcanic island, awakened […]
GUY BRUNET
GUY BRUNET(1945 | SWITZERLAND) Guy Brunet was 16 when he began filling school notebooks with screenplays. Gradually, he took up drawing as well, at first using colored pencils to create his storyboards. Later he would go on to draw and paint his own movie posters on the back of those he inherited from his father […]
BAUDOUIN FIERENS
BAUDOUIN FIERENS(1975 | BELGIUM) He attends the workshop of Luc Mondry and Nicole Babila at La Clarière. His work is characterized by torn, imprisoned figures. The line appears continuous. Black shapes haunt the white of the paper, traces affirming existence as much as revealing vulnerability and emptiness. The signature “BAUDOUIN” is part of the composition. […]
PALAIS IDÉAL DU FACTEUR CHEVAL
Real self-taught, Ferdinand Cheval devotes 33 years of his life to build a dream palace in his garden alone.
KASHINATH CHAWAN
KASHINATH CHAWAN (1950, INDIA) Kashinath Chawan draws in ballpoint pen on torn cardboard or pieces cut out from salvaged shoe boxes, or else on used pieces of paper found on the floor.Chawan does no sketches or preliminary drawings: his first lines are light and imprecise. These he then builds up by repeating them in little […]
FAUSTO BADARI
FAUSTO BADARI(1962 | ITALY) Fausto Badari was born in Roverbella, Italy. His parents suffered from psychic disorders and lived in great poverty. Fragile since childhood, his condition deteriorated through lack of support, and worsened when his father died in 1992. He was in and out of a home until 2004. But his mental health continued […]
ZDENÊK KOŠEK
ZDENÊK KOŠEK(1949 | CZECH REPUBLIC) The self-taught artist Zdenek Kosek worked ad a typographer and drew caricatures and satirical cartoons for regional magazines and newspapers, but he also produced some unconventional paintings. In the 1980s a deep psychological divide gradually changed his perception of the world ; he was diagnosed as psychotic and had to retire in […]
JOHN BYAM
JOHN BYAM(1929-2013 | USA) John Byam was born in Oneonta (New York State, USA). As a kid he helped his parents, who owned a camping ground. In 1940s he worked for a railway company, and he served American army in Japan during the Korean War.After War he went back to live with his parents and worked […]
DAMIAN MICHAELS
DAMIAN MICHAELS(1969 | USA – AUSTRALIA) Damian Michaels was born in Virginia in 1969, his earliest years were nomadic owing to the demands of his father’s job. In the mid-1970s the family settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the age of eight, Michaels experienced his first epiphany, in the form of a visitation […]
ANTONIO ROSENO DE LIMA
ANTONIO ROSENO DE LIMA(1926-1998 | BRASIL) Antonio Roseno de Lima was born in 1926 in Alexandria (State of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil). His family was modest and for this reason he began working at a very early age, making birdcages, wood objects and spoons. Coming from a family of modest means, he began working […]
NICOLAI TARASYUK
NICOLAI TARASYUK(1932-2015 | BELARUS) Nicolai Tarasyuk was born in 1932 in the community of Pruzhany, near the forest. During the World War II has restricted his childhood education, and brought traumatic events to the area. Nicolai was not affected by this disasters and he lived all his life in his farm. He married in 1953, […]
LEE GODIE and her ante litteram “selfies”
Lee Godie (Jabot Emily Godee) was born in 1908 and she lived most of her life in Chicago. After the failure of her two marriages and the death of two of her four children, she became an homeless on the streets of Chicago.
BA ZI
BA ZI (1983 | CHINA) Ba Zi was born with the love of painting but he refused many times the idea of looking for a painting teacher for him, because the taught knowledge is far from his pursuit. He wanted to express his spiritual aspirations with an artistic language. During his growth he has some psychological […]
WILLIAM EDMONDSON
WILLIAM EDMONDSON(1870 ca.-1951 | USA) William Edmondson was the first Afro-American artist to have one-man show at MoMA in New York.He was born in the ’70s, in Tenessee, the son of freed slaves. He went to work at sixteen years of age as a manual laborer, railroad man, farm hand, fireman, and hospital janitor, and he never […]
THE LITTLE CHAPEL
THE LITTLE CHAPEL(1878-1951 | UNITED KINGDOM) The Little Chapel of Les Vauxbelets was rebuilt twice before its creator was satisfied with his work. Brother Déodat joined the Guernsey Christian Schools in 1913 and devoted his life to building a miniature replica of the Basilica and Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. The first chapel measured less than […]
DANIEL JOHNSTON
DANIEL JOHNSTON (1961-2019 | USA) Daniel Johnston was born in Sacramento (California), in 1961. He was the fifth child of a religious family and he grows up in West Virginia, learns to play the piano and he began to draw since a very young age. His favourite subjects were the characters of the comic, especially […]
BRUNO MONTPIED
BRUNO MONTPIED(1954 | FRANCE) Bruno Montpied was born in 1954 in Boulogne-sur-Seine. He now lives in Paris where he makes a living as a monitor of extracurricular school activities. At the age of twenty he was inspired by surrealism and he began painting and drawing three years later after meeting Asger Jorn and the COBRA […]
FIORENZO PILIA
FIORENZO PILIA(1935 | ITALY) The farmer Fiorenzo Pilia had no formal and artistic education, but at the age of sixty he began making sculptures with residual material, resin, scraps and waste. The garden that Pilia began decorating in 1993 in 4.000 mq, outside the Sardinian village of San Sperate (Sardinia), represents the mystery of life.Pilia’s […]
TERRY WILLIAMS
TERRY WILLIAMS (1952 | AUSTRALIA) A prolific worker, Terry Williams’s art practice encompasses animation, ceramics, foam sculpture, texta drawing and watercolour. His detailed series of ceramic buildings and aeroplanes is a unique depiction of the modern industrial world. In contrast to the strong physicality of his three-dimensional work, his works on paper show loose black […]
EIJIRO MIYAMA
EIJIRO MIYAMA(1934 | JAPAN) Eijiro Miyama is often referred to as Bōshi Ojisan (“Hat Man”) due to his habit of riding his bicycle around the streets of Yokohama wearing eccentric clothing and large, elaborate hats adorned with dolls and other recycled objects. He was born in Mie Prefecture, Japan. A loner, he never married. He […]
MARIA PRIMACHENKO
MARIA PRIMACHENKO (1908-1997 | UKRAINE) Maria Primachenko was born in Bolotnya, a village near Chernobyl (Kyiv), in 1908. As a young girl, she contracted polio, and this grave illness affected her childood’s life. At an early age she used to paint the interior of her home and of her neighbours. Primachenko’s works caught the eye of […]
ART-STUDIO PERSPEKTIVY
The Saint Petersburg charitable organization, Perpektivy, was born in 1999 as a Russian partner of Perspektiven e V. (a German organisation), which started supporting disabled children in Saint Petersburg in 1996.
SOLANGE KNOPF
SOLANGE KNOPF(1957 | BELGIUM) “Solange Knopf was born in Brussels in 1957. Like many others of her generation she dipped in and out of the world counterculture of the 60’s and 70’s and travelled the globe (India, Afghanistan, Iran, Morocco). Circumstances led to some personal tragedies and drawing became a way of assuaging pain, depression […]
PIERRE RAPEAU
PIERRE RAPEAU(1935-2007 | FRANCE) Pierre Rapeau, a biology teacher, was born in the Perigord area of France. One day, tired of the world, he returned in the local forest, where he had a lively memory of the walks he made with his grandmother, collecting mushrooms and herbs. “In the early 1980s, I was suffering from silence. I […]
BESSIE HARVEY
BESSIE HARVEY(1929-1994 | AMERICA) Bessie Harvey was a visionary artist who flourished primarily in Alcoa, Tenesse, during 1979-1994. Born in Dallas, Georgia, Harvey was the seventh of thirteen children and she experienced a very difficult childhood. Drawing strength from her mother’s strong Christian faith, she also fond comfort in her own ability to create works […]
AALTJE DAMMER
AALTJE DAMMER (1907-? | NETHERLANDS) Dammer’s consulting psychiatrist wrote in a letter to mark the transfer of a folder containing all her preserved drawings: “Aaltje Dammer was an extremely introverted woman, who always gave shape to her emotions in the same rigorous way“. In 1928 – aged just 21 – she was admitted to a […]
POLITICAL SCULPTURE GARDEN
POLITICAL SCULPTURE GARDENM.T. LIGGETT(1930-2017 | USA) M.T. Liggett’s brightly painted metal cartoon figures dominate the roadside along a busy highway near Mullinville, Kansas, for almost a mile. In 1989, after retiring from a career in the military, Liggett returned to the farm on which he was born and began making metal sculptures using cutting and […]
ODY SABAN
ODY SABAN(1953 | TURKEY – FRANCE) Ody Saban was born in Istanbul, Turkey, to a Sephardic Jewish family. Her parents divorced when she was just five, her mother re-married a Turkish Muslim, whose artistic tendencies made their marl on the creative young girl. From the age of 16, Saban led an itinerant existence, living in […]
SAÏ KIJIMA
SAÏ KIJIMA(JAPAN – SWITZERLAND) Saï Kijima has been living in Europe for 30 years. His present residence is Basel, Switzerland. He devotes his life to Kalado, a unique system founded by himself. Kalado teaching connects art, bodywork, environmental awareness and the philosophy of empty mind. Saï is not related to any religious or cultural system. […]
THE HEIDELBERG PROJECT
THE HEIDELBERG PROJECTTYREE GUYTON(1955 | USA) Having grown un on Heidelberg Street and witnessed the tragic effect of the Detroit riot as a child, Tyree Guyton set about cleaning up the decaying area with the help of his grandfather Sam Mackey, his former wife Karen, and neighborhood children. In 1986, using the refuse they collected, […]
YASSIR AMAZINE
YASSIR AMAZINE(1975 | BELGIUM) Yassir Amazine doesn’t wish to communicate on his life outside his creative work at the studio of Luc Mondry and Nicole Babbles at La Clairière. He makes drawings with black, red and blue ballpoint pens, in order to create repetitive and violent lines. He uses his pen like a weapon, as if […]
HERMAN BOSSERT
HERMAN BOSSERT (1940 | NETHERLANDS) Herman Bossert was born in Amsterdam, in 1940, formerly a French teacher by profession. He’s a self-taught artist which creates paintings of mysterious town and city scenes that evokes associations with expressionism and surrealism.A major upheaval in 2001 led him to focus solely on drawing. He subsequently worked associatively, with a […]
MARKUS MEURER
Markus Meurer grew up in the sixties in a small Eifel valley, at the foot of Monreal castle. Meurer inherited his father’s animistic talents to see living creatures in every object.
SALVATION MOUNTAIN
SALVATION MOUNTAINLEONARD KNIGHT(1931-2014) | USA Leonard Knight began painting and creating his Salvation Mountain after a failed attempt to fly the world’s largest balloon, which he had spent ten years trying to make. Knight decided to stay on in the launch area, in a part of the desert known as “Slab City”. Using hundreds of […]
KUNIZO MATSUMOTO
KUNIZO MATSUMOTO(1962 | JAPAN) Kunizo Matsumoto was born in Osaka, Japan, where he is in charge of the dishes in the family restaurant. He was fascinated by the notes that the staff at the establishment wrote in little notebooks and attempted to reproduce them, event though he had never learnt to write. He obsessively collects […]
RAPHAËL LONNÉ
RAPHAËL LONNÉ (1910-1989 | FRANCE) Raphaël Lonné was born in the Landes region of France. He worked as a postman in his village, Montfort-en-Chalosse. From 1937 he was employed in Bordeaux, first as a cashier on the trams, then as a concierge, driver and hospital worker. Subsequently he again found employment as a postman in […]
EMILE RATIER
EMILE RATIER(1894-1984 | FRANCE) Emile Ratier was born into a farming family established in Soturac, in the region of western France. A farmer, the young man left the farm to go to the front in 1914. Returning from war to the family farm, he became a timber merchant, then a clog-seller. From 1960 onwards, Emile […]
THE BEER CAN HOUSE
In 1968, tired of mowing his lawn, retired railway upholsterer John Milkovisch (1912-1988) concreted over his garden and embedded thousands of marbles, buttons, rocks and pieces of metal in the paths, the walls and the wooden fence.
MEHRDAD RASHIDI
MEHRDAD RASHIDI(1963 | IRAN) Mehrdad Rashidi was born in the town of Sari in Northern Iran in 1963. At the age of 20 he fled Iran because of his strongly held political views and settled in Germany. In 2006, for no particular reason, he began to draw. He found it relaxed him and made him […]
JUNKERHAUS
JUNKERHAUSKARL JUNKER(1850-1912 | GERMANY) Karl Junker devoted his life to a single visionary project, constructing a heavily ornamented house at Lemgo, near Hanover, Gemany. After studying architecture in Munich, Junker used money he had received from an inheritance to build the house. He led a solitary life living alone for 22 years, even though the […]
MARIE-ROSE LORTET
MARIE-ROSE LORTET(1945 | FRANCE) Marie-Rose Lortet, originally from Strasbourg, began knitting at an early age, inspired by the tradition which ran throughout the female members of her family. Creating small fabric pictures and textile pieces, her knit work was never of a conventional nature. In 1967, with the attention and encouragement of Jean Dubuffet, Lortet’s […]
YING GEE ZHOU
YING GEE ZHOU (1978 | CHINA-USA) Born in 1978, in Guandong, China, Ying Gee came to Creative Growth with a strong aptitude for drawing and painting. Though relatively new to the studio, Zhou has created numerous works with a focus on painting, both on paper as well as textiles. Her loose, punctuated style is reminiscent […]
JOHANN HAUSER
JOHANN HAUSER (1926-1996 | AUSTRIA) Johann Hauser was born near Bratislava, Slovakia. As a child he was placed in a special school and remained illiterate. Considered to be feeble-minded, he was admitted to a psychiatric institution where he was described as dreamy, impulsive and quarrelsome. In 1949 he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital in […]
GUERINO GALZERANO
GUERINO GALZERANO(1922-2002 | ITALY) Guerino Galzerano was a baseborn farmer from Cilento (South Italy). After the marriage he emigrated to Germany as a hodman. In the 70s he was imprisoned in the psychiatric hospital of Aversa after a serious act of violence: in the outdoor spaces of the asylum he produced his first works. When he had […]
CHARLES BENEFIEL
CHARLES BENEFIEL (1967 | USA) Charles Benefiel was born in Venice Beach, California. His highly detailed works reflect his condition of obsessive compulsive disorder. Using draughtsman’s pens, he draws series of dots and points to compose his pictures of linear numbers and uniform geometrical figures. Creating his pictures freehand, without any preconceived composition, he counts […]
FOREVERTRON
FOREVERTRONDr. EVERMOR (1939-2020 | USA) In 1983 salvage worker Tom O Every (Dr. Evermor) passed his scrap business on to his son, began to call himself “Dr. Evermor”, and started on the task of creating “Forevertron”, a massive construction designed to travel in space. The visionary piece of his sculpture, made from scrap metal, machine parts […]
MARGARETHE HELD
MARGARETHE HELD(1894-1981 | GERMANY) In 1925 Margarethe Held entered in contact with the spirits and communicated with her deceased husband and her father. In 1950, at the age of fifty-six, she began drawing : four hundred pastel drawings in four months – all dictated by spirits. Siwa ordered her to show to other mortals, through her […]
ZEBEDEE ARMSTRONG
ZEBEDEE ARMSTRONG(1911-1993 | AMERICA) Born in 1911 in Georgia Zebedee Armstrong is an African American folk artist who creates complex calendars for predicting the end of the world. Like his father before him, Armstrong worked for much of his life on the Mack McCormick farm picking cotton. After the death of his wife, Armstrong went […]
JACQUES LUCAS
JACQUES LUCAS (1944 | FRANCE) After meeting the sculptor Robert Tatin in 1968, Jacques Lucas was inspired to begin work on his house near Rennes, Britanny. He covered the building with heavily ornamented reinforced structures, their forms and swirling patterns reminescent of the stonework of medieval cathedrals. Lucas brought his wide knowledge of the architecture and […]
NICK BLINKO
NICK BLINKO(1961 | ENGLAND) British artist, author and punk musician Nick Blinko creates incredibly intricate artworks that reflect the religious and macabre. His crowded landscapes, abundant with symbol and suggestion, depict melancholy and paranoia and serve as a link between the virulence of the punk movement and the catharsis of outsider art. Blinko has produced […]
HUNG TUNG
HUNG TUNG (1920-1987 | TAIWAN) Hung Tung was born in 1920, in a small fishing village near Tainan, in the south of Taiwan. The land was poor and people’s lives were very hard. Hung Tung’s father was dead when he was born and his mother died when he was four. With no money in the […]
TUDOR VILLAGE
TUDOR VILLAGEKEVIN DUFFY(1945 | UNITED KINGDOM) Kevin Duffy is a self-taught artist who has spent the last years building his own visionary environment. The only purpose of his buildings is to satisfy a need in Kevin to build, to create something.For more than 30 years Kevin Duffy has been constructing his Tudor Village in the […]
CARLO TORRIGHELLI
CARLO TORRIGHELLI – C.T.(1909-1983 | ITALY) Carlo Torrighelli, better known as C.T., was an “ante-litteram writer”, active in Milan especially near Castello Sforzesco and Porta Garibaldi Station, at the end of 1970.He was born in Laveno (Lake Maggiore), in 1909. Active in the Resistance as a young man, he moved to Milan after the war, […]
MARTIN THOMPSON
MARTIN THOMPSON (1955 | NEW ZELAND) Born in Wellington, New Zeland, in 1955, Martin Thompson is a self-taught artist and mathematician.Straddling the poverty line and unable to manage employment, he survived through support from a government health benefit and his own opportunistic salvaging of demolition wood. Timber became one of Thompson’s greatest passions after being […]
JOAQUIM VICENS GIRONELLA
JOAQUIM VICENS GIRONELLA(1911-1997 | SPAIN) Joaquim Vicens Gironella was born in Agullana, in Catalonia, near the French border. As most of his family worked as cork makers, he was initiated to the same craft. During his adolescence he wrote articles and poems celebrating the qualities of cork oak for local press. He also wrote dramas […]
ALBERT MOUHADEB
ALBERT MOUHADEB(1952 | ISRAEL) Albert Mouhadeb was born in 1952 in Lebanon and was brought up by his parents as the sixth of seven children. In 1970 the family immigrated to Israel. After spending some time in a Kibbutz he was recruited to the army and after two years released on health grounds. He then became […]
EUGENE VON BRUENCHENHEIN
EUGENE VON BRUENCHENHEIN(1910-1983 | USA) Eugene von Bruenchenhein was born and grew up in Marinette (Wisconsin), where he spent most of his working life employed in a bakery. Ever hopeful of success, the self-taught artist developed his own unique painting technique: using his fingers to rapidly manipulate the thin wet oil paint, he created magical swirls […]