After the first article of Contaminations, dedicated to Tommaso Buldini, the journey among the influences of the outsider art world continues in America with the art of 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 […]
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. How did the idea of creating this laboratory come from? Guo Haiping’s outsider art practice began in 2006 when he opened an […]
A short logbook for a weekend of drawings and fresh croissants
A SHORT LOGBOOK FOR A WEEKEND OF DRAWINGS AND FRESH CROISSANTS 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 […]
Art Brut Film Olomouc 2018
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 […]
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 IN WASHINGTON 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 interchanges ushered in new paradigms based on inclusion, integration, and assimilation. On view in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, […]
Ovartaci Fields
Vai alla versione italiana Presented by Museum Ovartaci & Business Park Skejby Location: Business Park Skejby, 8200 Aarhus Starting 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 […]
MICHAEL PELLEW
MICHAEL PELLEW (USA) I discovered Michael Pellew at the New York’s Outsider Art Fair and I fell in love with his works. I had already noticed some of his drawings online, but it was an emotion to being face to face with Lemmy of Motorhead (rest in peace) or Lady Gaga. Pellew has been working […]
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. […]
Art brut & design?
Vai alla versione italiana 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 […]
Outsiders are still in Venice
Vai alla versione italiana 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 […]
PHILADELPHIA WIREMAN
United States Philadelphia Wireman è il nome dato ad uno sconosciuto creatore di circa 1.200 piccole sculture tridimensionali scoperte da Robert Leich in una strada di Philadelphia alla fine degli anni ’70. “È stato un caso che queste opere siano sopravvissute,” spiega il collezionista e gallerista John Ollman a The Huffington Post “probabilmente ci saranno […]
25 years
Vai alla versione italiana 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 […]
ADAM GRIPPO
ADAM GRIPPO (USA) Adam Grippo began drawing at the age of 30. His enigmatic works have been described as unique and mysterious. Adam says that his works are always strongly autobiographical. He creates them almost always to get though unpleasant occurrences. His artwork is done until his personal point has been made. When he creates his work […]
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 […]
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 […]
ANTONIO ROSENO DE LIMA
1926-1998 | BRASIL Antonio Roseno de Lima è nato nel 1926 ad Alessandria (Rio Grande do Norte, Brasile). Le modeste condizioni economiche della sua famiglia lo hanno obbligato a lavorare sin da giovane: creava gabbie per uccelli, oggetti in legno e cucchiai. Dopo un matrimonio di otto anni ed una moglie in attesa del loro quinto […]
LEE GODIE
LEE GODIE (1908-1994, USA) 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.Godie could be seen on the steps of the Art […]
BA ZI
BA ZI (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 disorder (social […]
BROTHER DÉODAT
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 psychiatric […]
M.T. LIGGETT
M.T. LIGGETT – POLITICAL SCULPTURE GARDEN 1930- | 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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
MARKUS MEURER
MARKUS MEURER 1959- | GERMANY 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. Wherever Meurer lives, he is seen by his peers as maladaptive and antisocial, but Meurer has no idea why […]
LEONARD KNIGHT
LEONARD KNIGHT – SALVATION MOUNTAIN (1931-) | 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. […]
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 […]
RAPHAEL LONNE
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 a […]
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 […]
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 of […]
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 Klosterneuburg, […]
Charles Benefiel
CHARLES BENEFIEL (1967, USA) Charles Benefiel è nato a Venice Beach, California. Le sue opere altamente dettagliate riflettono il suo disturbo ossessivo compulsivo. Utilizzando penne professionali, disegna una serie di punti atti a formare i suoi lavori, invasi da numeri e figure geometriche uniformi. Crea le sue opere a mano libera, senza l’ausilio di immagini […]
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 dots […]
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 […]
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 family […]
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 […]
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 trained […]
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 […]
MOTOOKA HIDENORI
MOTOOKA HIDENORI (1978, JAPAN) Motooka Hidenori was born in Hyôgo district and now lives in Kôbe, in Japan. As a small child, he was intrigued by trains. He often goes to the railway station to photograph them, always front view, and then files the photographs with great care. As soon as a new model comes […]
A.C.M.
1951 | FRANCE A very shy child, born in Hargicourt, France, Alfred Marié passed his school certificate to become a house painter. In 1968 he entered the Ecole Régionale Supérieure d’Expression Plastique in Tourcoing. After five years, he abandoned his studies, destroyed his work and attempted suicide. In 1974 he met Corinne, who became his […]
THE OWL HOUSE – HELEN MARTINS
THE OWL HOUSE – HELEN MARTINS (1898-1976, AFRICA) Helen Martins was born in 1897 in Nieu Bethedsa, South Africa, the youngest of six children. She gained a teaching diploma after attending school in Graaff-Reinet and in 1919 moved to the Transvaal to begin working as a teacher.In 1920 Helen married a fellow teacher, Willem Johannes […]
The Owl House – Helen Martins
THE OWL HOUSE – HELEN MARTINS (1898-1976, AFRICA) Helen Martins è nata nel 1897 a Nieu Bethedsa, Sud Africa, la più giovane di sei figli. Ha conseguito il diploma per l’insegnamento dopo aver frequentato la scuola di Graaff-Reinet e nel 1919 si trasferisce a Transvaal per iniziare a lavorare come docente.Nel 1920 Helen sposa un […]
THORNTON DIAL
THORNTON DIAL (1928-2016, USA) Thornton Dial was born in 1928 to a poor family in rural Alabama. He was expected to work from an early age to support his unmarried mother. Having received minimal education, he worked tirelessly at many jobs until his retirement at the age of 55 in 1983. He admits that although […]
MELINA RICCIO
MELINA RICCIO (1951, ITALY) Carmela “Melina” Riccio, was born in 1951, in Ariano Irpino (Italy). Until the age of 33 she spent a common life taking care of her three children; she had worked as a modeller.In 1983, during the MACEF fair (International Home Show), she exhibited her realization, a bedspread with hand-painted lampshades and […]
TOMOYUKI SHINKI
TOMOYUKI SHINKI (1982, JAPAN) Tomoyuki Shinki was born in 1982 in Osaka. He’s an avid fan of combat sports, like wrestling and boxing, judo and Muay Thai.Shinki uses a computer to draw contorted opponens, sometimes black and white but more often vividly colored. In bold cartoonish scenes, Shinki’s fighters punch, grab, pull, smash, and flip […]
VILJO GUSTAFSSON
VILJO GUSTAFSSON 1927-1994 | FINLAND Viljo Gustafsson lived an isolated life in a small cottage in Karkkila, Finland. A labourer who suffered from alcoholism, Gustafsson was familiar with social misery and loneliness. Art was a means to ease his condition allowing him to explore the misery of life and death remaining an ambivalent figure, represented […]
JANKO DOMSIC
JANKO DOMSIC (1915-1983, CROATIA) We know almost nothing of Janko Domsic’s life or the circumstances of his arrival in France. He probably spent some time in prison. He might have lived in Toul, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, and in 1935 worked on the construction of a railroad in Pont-sur-Yvonne. Janko Domsic probably received elementary education. When in […]
DANIELLE JACQUI
DANIELLE JACQUI 1934- | FRANCE Danielle Jacqui was born in 1934 in Nice, to a jeweler father and a militant communist mother. The early 1970s were a founding period for Jacqui. She met Claude Leclercq, her second husband, who became a close companion in her artistic career until his death in 2000. A fellow […]
ALBERT LOUDEN
1943 | ENGLAND Albert Louden, a former van driver and weight-lifter, was born in Blackpool, England, during the Second World War. He left school at fifteen with no qualifications and worked in a series of driving-related jobs. He didn’t have any aspirations to become an artist, but recalls a day in primary school when the […]
ELLEN GREENE
ELLEN GREENE 1975-| AMERICA “I see the gloves as representative of social norms– conformity and chastity. The tattoo images represent the underside or shadow experience of that woman who wore those gloves.” Ellen Greene “Vedo i guanti come rappresentanti delle regole di vita sociali di conformità e castità. I tatuaggi rappresentano le ombre della donna […]
EUGENIO SANTORO
EUGENIO SANTORO (1920-2006, ITALY) Eugenio Santoro was born in Castelmezzano in Lucanie, a region in southern Italy. After five years of elementary schooling he undertook an apprenticeship as a joiner. At the age of 20 he left for the front in Albania and Greece, where he was taken prisoner, then deported to a prisoner-of-war camp […]
BILLY TRIPP
BILLY TRIPP 1955- | AMERICA William Blevins (Billy) Tripp, born 1955 in Jackson, Tennessee, is a nationally known practitioner of outsider art as well as the author of numerous poems and a novel, “The Mindfield Years”, published in 1996. He’s the creator of “The Mindfield”, the largest work in progress and outdoor sculpture in Tennessee. […]
Takashi Shuji
TAKASHI SHUJI (1974, GIAPPONE) Takashi Shuji è nato nel 1974 nella prefettura di Hyogo, Giappone. Attualmente vive con la sua famiglia nella città di Nishinomiya. Dopo aver terminato gli studi in una scuola specializzata (è affetto da sindrome di Down), all’età di diciotto anni, frequenta la Suzukake Institution, uno stabilimento di Kôbé che dà lavoro […]
TAKASHI SHUJI
TAKASHI SHUJI (1974, JAPAN) Takashi Shuji was born in 1974 in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. He currently lives with his family in the town of Nishinomiya. After finishing his education in a specialist school (he has Down’s Syndrome), at the age of eighteen, he attended the Suzukake Institution, an establishment providing work for the mentally handicapped […]
PASCAL TASSINI
PASCAL TASSINI 1955-| BELGIUM Pascal Tassini was born in Belgium in 1955 in a family of three children. He lived with his parents until they died, when one of his brothers took responsibility for him and sent him to the Créahm workshops in Liège in 1986. Tassini began working with clay before trying his hand […]
BRUNO WEBER
BRUNO WEBER 1931-2011 | SWITZERLAND Bruno Weber was born in 1931 in Dietikon, Switzerland, and grew up in a large Baroque house which, he recalled, had “many mysterious rooms [which] had never really been explored”. The experience, he said, made a lasting impression on his imagination. At the age of 12 he began painting with […]
EVELYNE POSTIC
EVELYNE POSTIC (1951, FRANCE) Evelyne Postic (born Mazaloubaud) was born in 1951 at the Hotel Dieu Lyon, France. Dancing, her first love, it was canceled due to a serious lung disease that struck her at 5. In addition, the separation of her parents made her a strong sense of abandonment. She was able to escape […]
TOM DUNCAN
1939 | SCOTLAND/USA “I was born in Scotland at the start of World War II; growing up I wasn’t aware that anything was wrong. If I had been born in peacetime maybe I would have noticed a difference. When I went to school my history lessons just confirmed that war was a natural phenomenon. My […]
J.J. CROMER
J.J. CROMER (1967, USA) The self-taught artist J.J. Cromer, born in 1967, spent most of his life in central Appalachia. Now he live on a small farm in Pound, Virginia, where he raise ducks and geese with his wife. He had a master’s degree in creative writing and he worked as a librarian.From 1998, frustrated […]
ROSA ZHARKIKH
ROSA ZHARKIKH (1930, RUSSIA) Rosa Zharkikh was born in Moscow in 1930. Her mother was a teacher and her father an engineer, but Zharkikh dropped out of high school and graduated from a vocational school that specialized in training blue-collar workers.For all of her adult life, Rosa has worked in a factory. She spent most […]
J.J. SEINEN
J.J. SEINEN (1934-2013, NETHERLANDS) José Johann Seinen was born in the Netherlands in 1934. During the Nazi Occupation, his parents were suspected of collaborating with the Germans and were imprisoned; José and his five brothers were placed in the custody of their grandparents, who lived in Amsterdam. There he began drawing tirelessly: exercise books designed […]
HORST ADEMEIT
HORST ADEMEIT (1937-2010, GERMANY) Horst Ademeit was born in Cologne in 1937. Trained as a textile designer, he entered Joseph Beuys’ class at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf in the late 1960. Here his works were rejected because too conservative and academic; this fact led him to left the total art world. Thereafter Ademeit supported himself […]
MR. IMAGINATION
1948-2012 | USA Gregory Warmack è nato nel 1948 a Chicago, terzo di nove figli e ha trascorso la sua infanzia nella degradata South Side di Chicago. Collezionista incallito di pietre, perline, bigiotteria e miriadi di oggetti inutilizzati, Warmack ha iniziato a creare e vendere gioielli nella tarda adolescenza. Scolpiva anche pezzi di corteccia, legno […]
Scottie Wilson
SCOTTIE WILSON (LOUIS FREEMAN, 1888-1972, SCOZIA) “Quando dipingo posso vedere cosa succede e posso immaginare cosa succederà.” Scottie Wilson (vero nome, Louis Freeman) è nato nel 1888 da un’umile famiglia di immigrati lituani a Glasgow, Scozia. Da bambino non ha potuto completare gli studi per poter aiutare economicamente la famiglia; in gioventù ha potuto viaggiare […]
SCOTTIE WILSON
SCOTTIE WILSON (LOUIS FREEMAN, 1888-1972, SCOTLAND) “When I’m working I can see what’s happening, and I can imagine what’s going to happen.” Scottie Wilson was born “Louis Freeman” in 1888 to a humble family of Lithuanian immigrants in Glasgow, Scotland. As a child, he didn’t complete many years of schooling in order to helps support […]
ANNUNZIO LAGOMARSINI
ANNUNZIO LAGOMARSINI 1932-| ITALY Annunzio Lagomarsini has worked for many years in the family building company: he taught himself engineering and structural aspects for built several constructions. Since 1977, for seven years, he created his “flying house” near LaSpezia, Liguria, where he lived with his wife. He used rejects from the building sites or […]
DALTON GHETTI
DALTON GHETTI 1961-| AMERICA Dalton Ghetti was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and he came to the U.S. in 1985. He now works as a carpenter and he’s a self-taught artist: he “sharpens” pencils as a meditation. He began learning how to handle tools at the young age of 6 when at […]
STANISLAW ZAGAJEWSKI
STANISLAW ZAGAJEWSKI 1927-2008| POLAND Stanislaw Zagajewski was abandoned by his mother at the age of two in front of a Church in Warsaw, Poland. Then he was placed in various orphanages, and he later trained as a mason before being employed in stucco restoration in the old city of Warsaw. Stanislaw Zagajewski è stato abbandonato […]
RICHARD NIE
RICHARD NIE (1954, ENGLAND) Richard Nie was born in England in 1954. After leaving secondary school he worked in an office and he embarked on a series of part-time jobs. As a young adult he began to suffer from serious depression and rarely left the family home, spending his nights drawing and playing the guitar, […]
PRADEEP KUMAR
PRADEEP KUMAR 1973-| INDIA Pradeep Kumar grew up in Narwana, India. Born deaf and partially mute, his father was determinate to give his son an education, having sensed Kumar’s innate talent from a very young age. He is presently employed as a clerk at the Punjab National Bank in Narwana. Kumar developed his artistic skills […]
Ionel Talpazan
IONEL TALPAZAN (1955-2015 , ROMANIA) L’artista autodidatta Ionel Talpazan è nato a Petrachioaia, Romania. All’età di 8 anni, in sogno, ha avuto un’esperienza ultrasensoriale in cui ha constatato la presenza di UFO. Da quel momento Ionel ha cercato di spiegare la conoscenza acquisita sulla tecnologia UFO attraverso i suoi disegni.Nel 1987 riesce a scappare dalla […]
IONEL TALPAZAN
IONEL TALPAZAN (1955-2015 , ROMANIA) The self-taught artist Ionel Talpazan was born in Petrachioaia, Romania. When he was 8 years old, he experienced the presence of a UFO while sleeping by a lake close to his home. From this moment on, Ionel explained his knowledge of UFO technology through his drawings.In 1987, he escaped Romania […]
UMBERTO GERVASI
UMBERTO GERVASI 1939-| ITALY Umberto Gervasi was born in Catania, Sicily. His parents were confectioners that produced local sweets sold at popular fairs. At the age of 14 he began working as a bricklayer, and at the age of 28 he moved to Sesto San Giovanni (Milan), where he worked as a metalworker in a […]
ANDRÉ ROBILLARD
ANDRÉ ROBILLARD 1932-| FRANCE André Robillard grew up near Orléans, France. He experienced great behavioural difficulties growing up and at the age of eight he was put in a school attached to a psychiatric hospital. At the age of 19, as a result of mental disturbances, André Robillard was committed to the hospital in Fleury-les-Aubrais: […]
HELMUT
HELMUT (1945, GERMANY) Helmut Nimczewski was born in Heidelberg, Germany, and he was brought up by his mother because he never knew his father.Retarded, probably as a result of brain damage caused by his epilepsy, he was put in several institutions and psychiatric hospital. Then he moved to a sheltered home in Hamburg where he […]
Helmut
HELMUT (1945, GERMANIA) Helmut Nimczewski è nato ad Heidelberg nel 1945, in Germania, cresciuto solo dalla madre, non avendo conosciuto il padre. Ritardato, probabilmente a causa dei danni celebrati dalla sua epilessia, è stato inserito in diverse strutture e ospedali psichiatrici. Successivamente trova casa ad Amburgo, dove ama passeggiare con la sua macchina fotografica. Helmut ama […]
RICHARD GREAVES
RICHARD GREAVES 1952- | CANADA The self-taught artist Richard Greaves was born in the Montreal area in 1952. He studied theology and worked in the hotel business. Since 1989, he has devoted himself to the creation of a huge architectural environment in Beauce, Quebec, that is in constant expansion: Greaves erects cabins that appear to […]
GUO FENGYI
GUO FENGYI (1942-2010, CHINA) Guo Fengyi was born in Xi’an, central China, in 1942. She obtained her high school diploma in 1962 and found work in a rubber factory, career that she was constricted to give up at the age of thirty-nine for several attacks of arthritis.After eight years of suffering, she initiated herself into […]
NEK CHAND
NEK CHAND 1924 – | INDIA Nek Chand Saini is an Indian self-taught artist famous for building the Rock Garden, an eighteen acre sculpture garden in Chandigarh, India. In 1951, Chand moved to Chandigarh to work as a road inspector for the Indian government’s Public Works Department. In 1958, he began collecting shaped rocks, discarded […]
GREGORY L. BLACKSTOCK
GREGORY L. BLACKSTOCK (1946, USA) The Seattle autistic artist Gregory L. Blackstock began drawing regularly in his mid-40s, studying the world around his like an anthropologist. He has a prodigious memory for visual objects, musical tone and compositions, and foreign languages. He learns of his world by replicating it, subject by subject, piece by piece. […]
MIROSLAV TICHÝ
MIROSLAV TICHY (1926-2011, CZECH REPUBLIC) I am not a painter. Nor a sculptor. Neither a writer. I’m retired Tarzan. Miroslav Tichy Miroslav Tichý was a photographer who from the 1960s until 1985 took thousands of pictures of women in his hometown of Kyjow, in the Czech Republic, where he was born in 1926, using homemade […]
Judith Scott
JUDITH SCOTT (1943-2005, USA) Nata a Cincinnati, Ohio, in una famiglia della media borghesia, a differenza di sua sorella gemella, Judith è affetta dalla sindrome di Down. A seguito di un attacco di scarlattina nella prima infanzia, perde l’udito, anche se questo problema le viene riconosciuto solo molti anni dopo.Considerata “ineducabile”, all’età di sette anni viene privata della […]
JUDITH SCOTT
JUDITH SCOTT (1943-2005, USA) Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, into a middle-class family, unlike her twin sister, Judith carried the extra chromosome of Down syndrome. Following an attack of Scarlet Fever in infancy, she also lost her hearing, although this would not be recognized until many years later. Considered “ineducable”, at the age of seven she […]
ARMAND SCHULTHESS
1901-1972 | SWITZERLAND Swiss born Armand Schulthess attended commercial college before doing an apprenticeship in an import-export company. From 1923 to 1935 owned a firm making women’s clothes in Zurich, then Geneva, which had to close due to economic recession. Subsequently he got a job in the commercial division of the Swiss Federal Department of […]
BEN WILSON
BEN WILSON 1963-| ENGLAND “Out of stillness really, you make something and you don’t impose a thing on the place but it comes out of the place”. “Fuori dalla quiete, tu puoi realizzare qualcosa senza imporre nulla al posto, ma facendolo uscire dal luogo stesso”. The son of an artist, Ben Wilson grew up in […]
JILL GALLIÉNI
JILL GALLIENI (1948, FRANCE) Jill Galliéni was born in 1948 to an American mother and a French father who was an actor. Brought up away from her parents, her father took over her care when she was seven.Jill always creates strange fabric dolls and turned to prayer towards the age of thirty as a way […]
Shinichi Sawada
(1987, Japan) Shinichi Sawada was born in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Diagnosed as autistic, he found employment in the hospital bakery of the Ritto Nakayoshi Sagyojo (institute for the mentally disabled, in the city of Kusatsu). In 2001, the professor directing the workshop where Sawada worked with clay, launched the construction of a small potter’s cabin: […]
Serge Delaunay
In his works colours are rare: in fact he uses black felt pen on large sheets of paper to draw mainly cars and spaceships. Delaunay is captivated by science, outer space, spacecraft, car mechanics, various architecture e robots.
Morton Bartlett
1909-1992, USA The self-taught artist Morton Bartlett, orphaned at the age of eight – like the compared Henry Darger – was adopted by a wealthy couple of Massachusetts. They permitted him to enrolled at Philipps Exter Academy and Harvard University, that he left for became a freelance photographer. Health problems forced him to give up […]
Curzio Di Giovanni
1957, Italy Curzio di Giovanni was born in 1957, originally from Lodi (Milan region, Italy). An organic infection delays his mental development and forces him to stay in the psychiatric environment for a long time, until he was admitted to a hospital near Pavia in 1979. Here Di Giovanni starts collecting objects, kept in his […]