Category Archives: Self Taught Artist

Artists who are self taught, outsider art

The Philadelphia Dumpster Divers @ Outsider Folk Arts in the Goggle Works.

The Philadelphia Dumpster Divers have overtaken Outsiders Folk Arts in the Goggleworks Center for the Arts, a major cultural hub of the Reading region. DoN saw families tumbling out the door after some sort of recital, there’s an art show of students who have taken classes in the center, there’s an enourmous wood shop that smells so good. The Goggleworks is a magnet for artists of all stripes finding access to a wide array of opportunities and is really cool space itself, packed with studios, galleries, show spaces and art. The Dumpster Divers are definitely grooving on the vibe of the place and have installed unique, quirky objects which will inspire many budding artists as well as attracting collectors, since Viener’s artistic eye is well respected.

George Viener is a collector of folk art, outsider art and self-taught art; even though the many of the Divers are professional artists in their own right, collectively the group has a simple basic principle of being creative with what’s on hand, art doesn’t have to be expensive to make and rescueing lost objects ala Marcel DuChamp is de riguer. DoN thinks that counts as self-taught, it’s new, unfiltered raw ideas bubbling to the surface; Dada.
outsider arts

Len Davidson, Queen of the Gnomes, @ Outsider Folk Arts in Reading, PA.

 

outsider arts

Randal Cleaver, Space Time @ Outsider Folk Arts.

 

outsider arts

Warren Muller, Philadelphia light artist @ Outsider Folk Arts in the Goggleworks Center for the Arts in Reading.

Dumpster Divers 17yo

The Dumpster Diver Gallery @ 734 South Street held a gala in honor of their 17th anniversary as an anarchist art collective dedicated to making art from cultural refuse. Like the gleaners in a Millet painting, this disparate group sifts through the remnants of contemporary culture creating junque, elegant objects, witty pronouncements, versatile visions as if gathering potatoes in a French field.  Ellen Benson‘s mixed media constructions from old books and Lincoln Logs throb with vague dreams of lives past; each anthropomorphic object has a funky little personality all it’s own, Benson is on a mission to create 1000 dolls, she’s approaching 500.  

Randy Dalton has recreated the Blue Grotto in the back of the sprawling space;  DoN LoVeS seeing funky old computers like the Mac blue-and-white monitor being used as an art object like some retrofitted Neuromancer future style.  DoN‘s blue-n-white glowed purple and made a zapping sound early in the morning a while back but it’s still in the basement, too beautiful to throw away.  Neil Benson‘s lamp made of stacked tin boxes is a museum piece; each box filled with memetic waves forms depending on the pattern printed on the thin folded metal.   The Dumpster Divers on South Street is like William Gibson‘s future city built on the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge after the grid goes down and a whole society develops meeting every need from noodle soup to watch repair.  

Artists are taking the city over from City Hall to South Street, Kensington to University City, Rittenhouse Square to Pretzel Park; art is more than just on the surface, it’s being built in. 

 ellen benson

Ellen Benson with her dolls @ Dumpster Divers on South Street.

randy dalton

Randy Dalton’s Blue Grotto @ Dumpster Divers. 

 

 

Justin Duerr @ St. Asaph’s

Check it out – a wide angle shot of Justin Duerr’s incredible show at St. Asaph’s.  DoN can’t stop thinking about Justin’s story about his first job in a bakery.  The boss was mean – we’ve all had mean bosses but this jerk took the cake – but Justin learned to decorate cakes and design with frosting. Duerr decorated his own cake for the opening party with day-glo orange piping of a woman’s face. The framing by Robert Bullock of Coalition Ingenu is truly superior, some of Duerr’s drawings are five feet or more with thin plexiglass offering distortion free viewing.  Learn more about Coalition Ingenu and the fine work they do using art to improve people’s lives and our community, you’ll be inspired – Shoska & DoN LoVe this show and art space! justin Duerr: Song-Story Images in Black and White @ St. Asaph’s

Justin Duerr: Song-Story Images in Black and White @ St. Asaph’s

Justin Duerr: Song-Story Images in Black and White  (and some Red) @ St. Asaph’s Gallery, presented by Coalition Ingenu is a tour de force in magic realistic drawings.  Duerr’s marker drawings, some huge and involving, some small and dream-like, fill the Gothic room with Bosch-ian imagery of bird-men, crawling words and psychedelic thought forms.  The presentation by Robert Bullock of Coalition Ingenu is pristine, with simple framing with glare-free plexiglass, permitting the viewer to delve into the mind of Justin Duerr.

justin duerr

Cake decorated by Justin Duerr for his opening party at St. Asaph’s gallery.  One of Duerr’s first jobs was working in a bakery where he learned to work with frosting.

justin duerr

Gallery view of the Justin Duerr installation @ St. Asaph’s Gallery, 27 Conshohocken/State Road, Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

justin duerr

“Ghost Born Free From Cages and Jails”, drawing by Justin Duerr.

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Justin Duerr @ St. Asaph’s Gallery through April 5, 2009.