SNEAK PEEK: Outsider Art

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Howard Finster, “Yoke of Faith,” no date

silk screen on fabric, open edition, 18" x 13" (courtesy the artist and Outsiders and Others, Vancouver)

A new window gallery in Vancouver that focuses on outsider art is featuring a group show this month that includes work by American preacher Howard Finster, who turned a piece of swampy land into a folk art sculpture park known as Paradise Garden.

Finster, a Baptist minister from Georgia, created more than 46,000 pieces of art before his death in 2001.

“He saw himself as a sacred artist, tirelessly recording his visionary prophecies and providing glimpses of a celestial outer space world that God revealed to him,” according to Paradise Garden's website. “These visionary journeys were very real for Finster, providing a limitless variety of images for his creative endeavours.”

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A street view of the Outsiders and Others gallery. (Courtesy Yuri Arajs)

The Vancouver non-profit gallery, Outsiders and Others, opened in June by Yuri Arajs, features monthly shows of unconventional art, typically by self-taught artists who often portray elaborate fantasy worlds.

Its space, at 716 East Hastings St., also home to the Eastside Culture Crawl, is small. The street-front window is approximately five feet by five feet, with a small interior display space that's 11 feet wide and six feet deep.

"I opened the gallery this way, COVID-ready, because I think things will be this way for a while," says Arajs, a former director of Vancouver's Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture, which produces and presents work by artists with disabilities.

"This format is extremely accessible as you don't need an appointment. The gallery is open 24/7 – there is a QR code on the window that you can scan to go directly to the exhibition on our website to read about the artists or to purchase work." 

Arajs says he hopes to open a larger gallery in the future through partnerships with other organizations.

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Amy Rice, "Closed System (You Have Been the Wind in My Sails)," no date

stencil with mixed media, 16.5” x 20.5” (courtesy the artist and Outsiders and Others, Vancouver)

Arajs, who once ran an outsider gallery in Minneapolis, says outsider art doesn't get much attention in Canada. This month's show, What’s to Come: An Outsider Art Survey in a Window, is aimed at changing that with work by 10 artists from Canada, Australia and the United States.

Two Canadians are featured: George Gordienko, a professional wrestler born in Winnipeg, and Jack Procter, a painter, sculptor and collage artist particularly inspired by Art Brut, a term coined by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe naïve art made outside academic traditions.

The show includes American Gregory Warmack, also known as Mr. Imagination, who often used sandstone and bottle caps in his work. Other Americans are Bill Borden, Anne Grgich, W.C. Rice and Fahima Lalli, originally from Afghanistan, as well as Australian Damian Michaels.

The final artist in the show is Amy Rice, whose work reflects childhood memories of growing up on a farm in the American Midwest. Arajs says he first noticed her stencil work on a sidewalk. “I look,” he says. “I’m always interested in who’s making stuff in the strangest of places.” ■ 

What’s to Come: An Outsider Art Survey in a Window is on view at Outsiders and Others in Vancouver from Aug. 1 to Aug. 30, 2020.

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