About the Exhibition

Jennifer returned to the Outsider Art Fair in New York in January 2020. Firm favourites returned alongside new artists ...

• Shinichi Sawada

• Akio Kontani

• Makoto Okawa

• Roy Collinson

• Chris Neate

• Leonhard Fink

• Margaret Mousseau

• Norimitsu Kokubo

• Carlo Keshishian

There is a youtube clip of the fair that can be found here, and if you scroll to 35:45 you will see a short walk around my booth.

About the Exhibition

The Jennifer Lauren Gallery made its debut at the Outsider Art Fair in Paris in October 2019 alongside other galleries such as Cavin-Morris from New York, Creative Growth from California and Galerie Atelier Herenplaats from Amsterdam.

Jennifer took nine artists to the fair: Aradne, Hakunogawa, Akio Kontani, Chris Neate, Valerie Potter, C.J. Pyle, Nobuo Sasaki, Shinichi Sawada and Makoto Toya.

About the Exhibition

2019 started with a bang with my second appearance at the New York Outsider Art Fair. There were new ceramic works by Shinichi Sawada and automatic black and white drawings by Chris Neate, alongside 1970s mosaicked sculptures by famed outsider artist Nek Chand. Three artists made their debut at the fair too: complex colourful drawings by Japanese artist Norimitsu Kokubo, delicate but dark embroideries by British artist Valerie Potter and overlaid text and block colour drawings by German artist Robert Fischer.

About the Exhibition

Jennifer Lauren Gallery made their debut at the Outsider Art Fair in New York in January 2018. The Gallery brought along five artists’ works including the Japanese artists Shinichi Sawada, Masao Obata, Makoto Takezawa and Shinya Fujii, as well as UK artist Chris Neate.

Below is a brief introduction to each artist but more detail can be found on their artist page, linked through their name.

Born in 1982, Shinichi Sawada started attending Shiga Prefecture (a local social welfare facility for persons with intellectual disabilities) three or four times a week from around the year 2000. At this time, he began creating his ceramic art works at a kiln-equipped pottery workshop in the local mountains. He has created around fifteen different motifs that change slightly each time he makes them.

Masao Obata (1943-2010) only started drawing in his residential care facility (Hyogo Prefecture) in Japan after the age of sixty. His strong urge to create led him to source pieces of large cardboard to draw on from the kitchens in his facility, as the paper was too small. Obata often drew in red as for him this was the colour of happiness.

Born in 1969, Shinya Fujii became interested in art whilst a high school student following reading a magazine article, after which he won a prize for his entry into a comic book design competition. Fujii returned to drawing in 2007 when his father died and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Makoto Takezawa (1970 - 2010) lived in Hokkaido, Japan in a facility for those with intellectual disabilities from 1988. With only a mild intellectual disability he managed to graduate from Junior High School, and it was here, through his art education classes, that he learnt about woodcut techniques.

Chris Neate (b.1954) has been developing his style of drawing since his late teens. During the 1970s he attended Art College in Leeds but never completed a foundation course nor did he feel he was given any formal training. During his time working as a hospital social worker with older people Neate sporadically drew, and this need to draw has intensified over the years. Neate practices automatic drawing and turns the piece as he draws.

About the Exhibition

Following on from the successful launch exhibition Masao Obata: Drawing Happiness in Red, the Jennifer Lauren Gallery presented their second exhibition Blinko and Neate: Unlocking Worlds. Teaming up with London based Henry Boxer Gallery; this exhibition showcased the intricate monochromatic drawings of Nick Blinko and Chris Neate.

Taking their inspirations from different sources, both artists share a highly detailed aesthetic and intensive, sometimes obsessive working process. Blinko represents his thoughts about his illness and the effects of his medication whereas Neate allows his hands to produce automatic creations dependent upon his frame of mind.

Part artist, part lead singer of the heavy punk band Rudimentary Peni, Blinko has a cult following who appreciate him on both levels. His drawings depict fantastically intricate confrontations with his own demons yet not all the faces in his work are malignant: among the skulls and fractured dolls, there are ironic faces and mischievous things. Blinko said: “My initial intention was to try to depict melancholy … I got frustrated at the attempts to depict suicidal depression realistically, and I got more and more into detail.”

 Chris Neate attended Art College in Leeds in the 1970’s but never completed a foundation course nor did he feel he was given any formal training. He became involved in the avant-garde music scene and illustrated the record covers for emerging bands including Softcell’s ‘Tainted Love’.

During his time working as a hospital social worker with older people he drew sporadically. His need to draw intensified over the years. Neate said: “I think that I get some degree of comfort from drawing and if I do it intensely then I can get into quite a meditative state and lose myself in the process.”

Jennifer Gilbert said: “Both artists portray a fantastical attention to detail with microscopic precision, with messages in their works that may or may not be obvious to us. By placing them side-by-side I wanted to show how two artists that are compelled to draw, for varying reasons, produce complex works that fascinate the viewer and lead us to reach for a magnifying glass.”

With thanks to Tony Thorne, Consultant at Kings College London, and Vivienne Roberts, Curator at the College of Psychic Studies London, for allowing me to use parts of their texts on each artist to write this.