About the Exhibition

A new touring exhibition in Tokyo, Japan that toured across six venues was titled ‘In a sky full of shining stars, unknown gems can be found - To feel change and expansion in our universe.’ This exhibition featured 16 Japanese outsider artists and two American outsider artists, Mr Imagination and CJ Pyle. Two of the Japanese artists of note are Shinichi Sawada and Norimitsu Kokubo, who are represented by the Jennifer Lauren Gallery.

“The artists we are introducing create in deeply unique and idiosyncratic ways. Artists that are compelled to fill a page to the brim. Artists that are compelled to tie and bend leaves. Artists that are compelled to draw only on pieces of discarded wallpaper. The logic and systems we see these artists adopt can challenge some of our most fundamental notions of what “art” is. Our reaction is not their concern. These artists are simply compelled to create. This series of exhibitions will travel across 6 different exhibition spaces in Tokyo (including the Kichijoji Art Museum and the Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery), featuring the works of 16 Japanese Art Brut artists and 2 artists from overseas. This series of exhibitions also features the input from a range of specialists from folklorist, photographers, and museum director (to be referred to as the “new angle navigators”). They will be offering their professional and multi-faceted insights into Art Brut, the potential of art in society and the human compulsion to create.”

More can be read about this special art brut exhibition HERE in English.

Edward Gomez also reviewed the show HERE.

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

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.