American Folk Art Museum Visionary Awardleft to right: Jason T. Busch, Debra Kerr, Cleo Wilson, Audrey Heckler The American Folk Art Museum bestowed its 2018 Visionary Award to Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. The award ceremony, which took place on November 15, honoured Debra Kerr, who has served as executive director of Intuit since 2014, and Cleo Wilson, a founding board member of Intuit who also served as its president from 2002 to 2006 and executive director from 2006 to 2012. Last few weeks to see "The Original Makers" at Birmingham Museum of Art, ALTed Degener in front of his photograph of and works by B.F. Perkins until December 30, 2018 "The Original Makers: Folk Art from the Cargo Collection" features more than 160 works of folk art from Birmingham Museum of Art’s permanent collection. Works of art range from quilts, drawings and paintings, to wooden and metal sculptures, and functional objects such as bird houses – all made in Alabama and several neighbouring states. Featured artists include Leroy Almon, Bessie Harvey, Shields Langdon Jones, Rev. B. F. Perkins, Herbert Singleton, Jimmy Lee Sudduth and Mose Tolliver. Birmingham Museum of Art Dr Guislain Museum, Gentuntil May 26, 2019 "Sensations. Between Passion and Pain" includes work by Johann Garber, Willem van Genk, Marc Lamy and Lies Hutting. Museum Dr. Guislain Marc Lamy Galerie Dettinger-Mayer, Lyonuntil December 29, 2018 "Terrible wonders" at Galerie Dettinger-Mayer features drawings by Christelle Lenci. Galerie Dettinger-Mayer Saban and Lesage at Galerie Hervé Courtaigne, ParisOdy Saban until January 12, 2019 Galerie Hervé Courtaigne's 20th anniversary group exhibition includes works by Ody Saban and Augustin Lesage, among many others. Galerie Hervé Courtaigne Miniature Raw Vision #1!All subscribers will receive a free miniature facsimile of Raw Vision #1 in their copy of RV #100. This will be a free gift for subscribers only. Subscribe now for your copy! Our Editor, John Maizels, trying to read the mini #RV1! Don't miss it! Raw Vision 99 Article PreviewKWAME AKOTO, AKA ALMIGHTY GODJean Seisser, an author and contemporary of the French artist Hervé Di Rosa, recalls their encounters with a very special artist in GhanaAuthor: Jean Seisser The French artist Hervé Di Rosa has been travelling the world since 1992. Going from one workshop to another, he learns how images and objects are produced in different cultures, with the ultimate aim of blending different methods into his own productions. He has worked with icon restorers in Sofia, Bulgaria, and embroiderers in Porto Novo, Benin. He has met tanned-hide painters in Addis Ababa, fresco masters in Patrimonio, Corsica, and learned how to use lacquer with a Vietnamese master in Binh Duong. Almighty God Art Works, 2018, glycerophtalic paint on wood, 48 x 47.2 in. / 122 x 120 cm, F. Adamsbaum/ V. Di Rosa, photo: Vincent Di Rosa For his third “Étape Autour du Monde” (Step Around the World) in 1993, Di Rosa was in Kumasi, Ghana, looking for a workshop foreman. I found better than that: Almighty God. Back then, Ghanaian hairdressers’ signs were monopolising the time of local art producers from Dakar to Kinshasa; they were not, however, Almighty God Art Works’ speciality. This studio focused on custom calligraphy for cars – number plates and legal wording – and traffic signs. It was also commissioned to make advertising posters 3 x 4 metres in size. I recognised Almighty’s signature on several giant signs that depicted terrifying car crashes, each reproduced in a newspaper to promote road safety. He had painted them then gifted them to Ghana’s Ministry of Transportation to be placed outside big cities to encourage drivers to be cautious. He was renowned in Kumasi, a city of two million in the Ashanti region, and in certain circles his reputation had reached Europe and America. Thanks for not Creating me a Cow, 2016, glycerophtalic paint on canvas, 46 x 35.4 in. / 117 x 90 cm, Musée Du Quai Branly, photo: Pierre Schwartz Now he mostly goes by the name of his workshop, “Almighty God”, but his given name is Kwame Akoto. He was born on November 25, 1950, in Kumasi. He went to elementary school in Bremang and then studied the “art business” with two billboard masters in Kumasi, Kwasi Addaï and Kobia Amafi. A portrait of Addaï, taken shortly before his death, hangs on the workshop fence. Mamy Wata, 2017, glycerophtalic paint on wood, x 47.2 in. / 80 x 120 cm, Collection Antoine De Galbert, photo: Pierre Schwartz At the end of his apprenticeship in 1972, Akoto opened his own studio and called it “Anthony Art Works”, a tribute to Anthony of Padua, the eleventh-century Franciscan friar and patron saint of lost things. He began going by the name of Anthony Akoto. Soon after, he converted to Christianity with his partner, and future wife, Faustina and, “freed from Satan’s influence”, he was “born again” on December 13, 1991. He renamed the studio Almighty God Art Works. In his autobiography, Almighty God wrote: “What I love most is to be a witness of Jesus Christ, create art, sing, and get physical exercise”. As well as an artist, Almighty God is a fervent preacher and famous healer, and a member of the House of Faith Ministries, a Pentecostal sect. Read the rest of this article in Raw Vision 99, out now! Calling All Film Makers!Raw Vision is excited to announce a short film competition! Don't miss this exciting opportunity to have your film promoted online, screened at the Outsider Art Fair in New York, and win $2,000! |