until April 28, 2018 "All my paintings are 'automatic' and therefore, take life directly on the paper: forms and materials whisper to me what to do..." Cavin-Morris Gallery presents the deeply visionary trance paintings of self-taught artist Izabella Ortiz, which draw on the animistic aspects of water. Cavin-Morris Gallery
210 11th Avenue #201, New York,
NY 10001
www.cavinmorris.com
Musée d'Art Brut de Montpellier
until September 30, 2018 A retrospective of the work of French self-taught artist Jean-Joseph Sanfourche whose work was collected by Dubuffet and Bourbonnais. L’Atelier Musée
1 rue Beau Séjour,
34000 Montpellier, France
www.atelier-musee.com
Sophie's Gallery, San Diego
April 7 – May 5, 2018 Sophie's Kensington Gallery presents "Diverse Perspectives" during National Autism Awareness Month. The public reception and book fair will take place on Saturday April 7 from 5.00–8.00 pm. Sophie’s Kensington Gallery & Gift Shop
4186 Adams Avenue,
San Diego 92116, CA
www.facebook.com/Sophies-Gallery-and-Gift-Shop-220167178038759/
Danielle le Bricquir in Loudun, France
until April 29, 2018 "La Fabrique du Rêve" features more than 80 paintings and sculptures by Danielle Le Bricquir, depicting myths and legends of distant countries. La Collégiale
Place Sainte-Croix, 86200 Loudun, France
www.ville-loudun.fr
until April 10 The Museum of Naive and Marginal Art in Jagodina and Belgrade's House of King Peter I present a selection from the museum's permanent collection. Masterworks by the leading Serbian figures include those by Sava Sekulic, Vojislav Jakic, Miloslav Jovanovic and IIija Bosilj. House of King Peter I,
Vase Pelagica 40, Belgrade
www.mnmu.rs
www.kucakraljapetra.rs
Out this month and available to pre-order now, Raw Vision 97 features the below, plus much more!
New perspective on classic American outsider obsessed with flight
Humorous carvings and sculptures by newly discovered artist in Sardinia
Introduction to four important Japanese outsiders
Bank notes and circuses depicted by Soviet era obsessive outsider
Raw Vision 97 Article Preview:
SPACES
Advocacy organisation SPACES documents art environments around the world and is linking up with the Kohler Foundation, Inc. By Jo Farb Hernandez This story begins with an ad-hoc group of artists and community activists who banded together in 1959 to fight the city-mandated destruction of Sabato Rodia’s Watts Towers, an environment of 17 sculptures sparkling some 100 feet high above south central Los Angeles. At first, this group of enthusiasts (the Committee for Simon Rodia’s Towers in Watts, CSRTW) believed this public artwork was unique in both aesthetic and genre. But, as the initial success of that first campaign gave way to more sustained involvement with the Watts community, bringing
art classes to local children and exploring ways to link the inspiration of the Towers to improving lives in the surrounding neighborhoods, a photographer and early member of the CSRTW named Seymour Rosen started to find evidence of other idiosyncratic or monumental structures, first around southern California and then further north. “This must be a California phenomenon”, he reasoned, assuming that the postwar impulse to move West would include its share of radical thinkers, makers and builders.
SPACES Director Jo Farb Hernández with Founder Seymour Rosen at the Watts Towers,
2000, Los Angeles, CA, photo: Sam Hernández
At the time, Rosen was piecing together a living by documenting contemporary art installations at the Ferus Gallery, photographing the Los Angeles Museum of Art’s entire permanent collection, teaching classes and leading workshops at the Barnsdall Art Center, and documenting a variety of other art-related activities around Los Angeles. He began to focus his free time on what he called “folk art environments”, to differentiate them from public environments and installations by mainstream artists. While we no longer use that descriptor – as in many ways these unique spaces are the very antithesis of the community-driven shared aesthetics that define folk art – we understand that by calling attention to their distinctiveness, while trying to slot them into existing art world categories, Rosen was beginning to
formulate the identification of a completely different genre.
Sergey Ivanovich Kirillov, Decorated House, 2017, Kunara, Russia, photo: Sergey Bezgodov
SPACES – the acronym for Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments – thus grew and grew, both physically and conceptually. It was formally incorporated as a non-profit organisation in 1978, and, though its collections leaned toward Californian/Western art environments, Rosen had soon realised it wasn’t a California phenomenon at all. It was global. And while he was a rather unlikely person to found an archive – as his organisational gene was sorely lacking – he persevered. He followed leads to new sites and funding sources, and conceived of ways to interest a wider audience through exhibitions and public programming. He had become obsessed with these sites...
In the Birdcage Theater by Calvin and Ruby Black, 1975, Possum Trot, Barstow-Victorville, California, photo: Seymour Rosen
...Since the end of 2012, when the SPACES website went live, interest in the field of art environments has grown exponentially. Hundreds of supporters – from rigorous researchers to casual photographers – have shared their photographs, texts and tips, turning the website into a crowdsourced resource available internationally. While I have worked with art environments such as Fred Smith’s Wisconsin Concrete Park since 1973, I am continually amazed that I still learn about new sites almost every day, whether at home or travelling; it was simply by chance that I ran across Abdel Karim Baz’s Decorated House in Morocco, for example. SPACES has recently received information about intriguing sites such as Zoez’s Museum of the Dreaming Sea Stones in Venezuela; nine compelling sites in Cuba, including Gallo’s
Garden of Affections; and Sergey Ivanovich Kirillov’s remarkable Decorated House in Russia. The Czech Republic is newly represented by a half-dozen environments, including Frantiska Blechová’s Fairytale Garden, and we’ve recently added such dazzling Asian sites as Huang Qichun’s Tomb and Temple in Taiwan and Toto Sunu’s garden environment in Indonesia. As we record and compile this data, we carry out further research and I carefully edit the texts to meet our research standards. At the time of writing, we have identified over 1,400 art environments around the world and uploaded over 18,000 photographs to our website.
Josep Pujiula i Vila, El Parc Salvatge, 2016, Argelaguer, Catalunya, Spain, photo: Jo Farb Hernández
Read the rest of this article in Raw Vision 97, out in the next few weeks!
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