About the Exhibition

This online exhibition ‘Evolving Echoing Entities’ offered the viewer a chance to discover the inner voice of eight self-taught artists from around the world - from loud splashes of colour, to hummed repetitive strokes, to hushed delicate marks. As many of these artists have varying verbal abilities, their choice of marks and the process behind each and every detail made conveys a meaning, telling us a story. Their art highlights their differences in language and delivery, but essentially they all communicate hidden and unheard stories or ideas. This might see us studying the back to front symbols and repeated lettering covering bold shapes of colour seen in Robert Fischer’s drawings; the calming overlaid rhythmic swirls showing focused repetition and movement from Nnena Kalu or the colourful abstract floral imagery and treescapes blanketing John Maull’s drawings. The actual process of making itself and the layering of marks is integral and plays a central role in each artist’s composition. Their shared common aesthetic is their use of vivid colours and their non-conformist attitudes. Each artist becomes absorbed in the creative act, creating for their own needs: the fact we get to see their treasures is a real treat.

The eight artists were: John Black from Garvald in Edinburgh, Éric Derochette from La ‘S’ Grand Atelier in Belgium, Robert Fischer from Geyso20 in Germany, Sher-ron Freeman from Creative Growth in California, Joe Goldman from Project Art Works in Hastings, Nnena Kalu from ActionSpace in London, Judy Lopez from the ECF Art Centers in Los Angeles and John Maull from Tierra del Sol Studios in Los Angeles.

You can catch Jennifer in conversation with Sarah Galender Meyer, Gallery Director from Creative Growth in Oakland, CA, and Paige Wery, Gallery Director from Tierra del Sol in Los Angeles, CA via THIS link. BSL is recorded into the video and a full written transcript is available.

THE EXHIBITION WAS PROFILED ON FRIEZE AS A TOP TEN VIRTUAL EXHIBITION IN 2021 - LINK HERE

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About the Exhibition

The Outsider Art Fair Paris went virtual in 2020 due to Covid-19. The Jennifer Lauren Gallery was sorry to be miss people in person in Paris this year, but was pleased to present a gathering of new works, some never seen before, from artists the Gallery supports. You can no longer view the link to the page since the fair is over, but below is a selection of works from the artists I shared at the fair. You will see: eighties colour pop wonders that have never seen the light of day from Valerie Potter, cosmic visions in colour and monochrome from Julia Sisi, Moroccan beings from Mohammed Mrabet, layered communicative works with colour and symbols from Robert Fischer, detailed carved toothpicks from Pradeep Kumar and iconic spiky creatures from Shinichi Sawada. Not forgetting Jesse James Nagel making his debut with a visionary wonder with a fantastic title!

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

Building on its previous successes, the fourth Jennifer Lauren Gallery offering featured three artists, all sharing their memories in an explosion of colour, line and form - Ben Wilson, known as the chewing gum man, from the UK; Garrol Gayden from LAND Gallery in New York and Robert Fischer from Geyso20 in Germany. This diverse exhibition drew on the Gallery Director’s interest in text within artwork, its legibility and its purpose. Director Jennifer Gilbert said:

“Ever since my degree I have been interested in how text is used within artwork, and whether messages are subtly or openly made through this medium. These three artists use text and symbols in varying ways to either explain or narrate their ideas, or in Robert Fischer’s case we, as the audience, are left to make our own decisions on what his symbols and letters are perhaps meant to illustrate.”

Ben Wilson (b.1963) is an English wood carver creating huge wooden sculptures in his garden in London and also in Finland, Australia and the USA. However, he is better known as the chewing gum man, where, since 1998, he has created tiny works of art painted onto chewing gum that he finds on the pavement. To create the chewing gum paintings Wilson first heats the chewing gum with a small blowtorch, then coats the gum with three layers of acrylic enamel. He uses special acrylic paints, finishing each with a clear lacquer seal. No payment is taken for these.

Garrol Gayden (b.1960) creates work that focuses on New York City’s Coney Island. The Brooklyn based artist first visited Coney Island at the age of seven, and, since starting at LAND Gallery in 2005, Gayden has remained pre-occupied with this trip and his ride on the park’s ‘Spook-a-Rama.’

From the age of five, Gayden was fixated by the television and drew not only the characters from popular TV shows, but layered this with the letters and words he saw on the screen too. The use of text interwoven with figurative drawings remains the signature look of his artworks to this day. Gayden is a very talkative man, chatting about his work whilst drawing (both to himself and to others) and these phrases are often incorporated into his artworks.

In contrast Robert Fischer (b.1976) is unable to communicate about his artwork, leaving the centre and audiences to make their own judgments. Since 2004, Fischer has attended the art studio two days a week, taking several weeks and sometimes months to complete one piece.

Fischer works in a combination of pencil, crayon and felt pen. It is said that he begins his drawings with a graphic framework that reminds audiences of houses, building plans or machines. He then covers his artworks with lines, letters, and symbols, with several of the letters appearing seemingly backwards on the paper.

With thanks to Sophia Cosmadopoulos from LAND Gallery, Rachel Cohen from NAP Projects and Nina Roskamp from Geyso20 for their help in liaising with the artists for this exhibition.