Made up of assorted materials glued onto varied surfaces — from papers to wooden boards — collage art was first recognized as a distinct art form at the beginning of the 20th century. The collage pictured above, “We Dare to Know Where Our Tale Begin,” was fashioned in 2019 by the African-American, Milwaukee-based self-taught artist Della Wells. I discovered Della’s infectious aesthetic at this past January’s Outsider Art Fair. Several more collages by a diverse range of artists — all largely self-taught — follow:

The late, largely self-taught multimedia artist and activist David Wojnarowicz, “History Keeps Me Awake at Night,” 1986, Acrylic, spray paint and collaged paper on composition board — as seen in his 2018 solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum

The recently-deceased, self-taught collage artist Michael Anderson — as seen back in 2010 in his solo Chelsea exhibition, “The Street Is My Palette.”

The late celebrated, self-taught multi-media artist, Rammellzee, “Ransom Note…” Mixed media collage on board — as seen in his 2018 solo exhibition at Red Bull Arts New York 

Fountain House Gallery artist Roger Jones,”Untitled,”  Markers, pens and postage stamps  — as seen earlier this year in the  Fountain House Gallery Space in LIC

Photos of artworks by Lois Stavsky

I discovered Billy White‘s endearing, authentic aesthetic while visiting his solo exhibition, Coming to America, back in 2018 at Shrine Gallery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Last week, I was delighted to visit his current exhibit, This is a Show by Billy, that continues through August 2 at Shrine.

Billy has been developing and honing his skills at the NIAD Art Center — an art studio and program for artists with developmental disabilities in Richmond, California — since 1994. Featured above is the artist’s self-portrait, fashioned with acrylic on linen in 2018. Several more images from the self-taught, African-American artist’s current exhibit follow:

Untitled, 2020, Acrylic on canvas

Joe DiMaggio. ca 2015, Acrylic and mixed media on stretched canvas

Untitled, 2020, Acrylic on canvas

And particularly apropos of our times — Untitled, 2018, Acrylic on canvas

Also on exhibit are a series of charming, glazed ceramic sculptures. Open Wednesday – Sunday
12pm–6pm, Shrine is located at 179 East Broadway on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. You can contact the gallery to schedule an appointment via its website.

Photos of artworks by Lois Stavsky

The image featured above was fashioned by the self-taught Japanese artist, Masayoshi Hanawa, whose tantalizing aesthetic I discovered at the NYC Outsider Art Fair in 2019. Several more images of couples rendered in an array of styles by a diverse range of artists — all self-taught — follow:

Self-taught Yonkers-based multimedia artist Michael Cuomo, — as earlier this year in his Yoho studio

Self-taught Brazilian artist Ernani Pavaneli, Just Married, 2013, Acrylic on canvas — as seen in Gina Gallery in Tel Aviv in 2018

Self-taught Queens-based artist John Tursi — as seen earlier this year at the Creedmoor Living Museum in Queens Village

The late African-American, Louisiana-based self-taught artist, Clementine Hunter, Pages from Sketchbook of Clementine Hunter, Oil on paper — as seen last year at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans

The late African-American, Mississippi-born self-taught artist Mary T. Smith, I WE OUR, House paint and enamel on wood — as seen last year at Shrine on Manhattan’s Lower East Side

Photo credits: 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6 Lois Stavsky; 4 City-as-School intern Basil Lyons 

The image pictured above, “The Builder,” was fashioned in 2017 by the largely self-taught, Atlanta-based printmaker Jamaal Barber. I came upon this woodcut and screen print in 2018 in the hugely impressive group exhibition, Making Change: The Art and Craft of Activism at the The Museum of Design Atlanta. Several more politically-conscious artworks viewed in a range of settings — both indoors and outdoors — follow:

Queens-based multi-media artist Issa Ibrahim — as seen on the walls of the Living Museum on the grounds of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Institute in Queens Village

Philly-based, self-taught stencil artist and muralist Joe Boruchow — as seen back in 2016 on Spring Garden Street in North Philly

Award-winning Manhattan-based artist Miguel Diego Colon, Mural painted in 2019 at First Street Green Art Park on the Lower East Side

DC-based multidisciplinary artist B. Peppers, Portraits of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT recently shot to death in her apartment by Louisville Metro Police and Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed, 25-year-old black man who was chased down and killed while he was jogging in Glynn County, Ga — as seen earlier this week outside the Public Theater in Manhattan. Both names have been voiced daily in protests that have risen up across the world following the murder of George Floyd.

Photos of artworks by Lois Stavsky

The image featured above, “Oh My Goodness, We’re Leaving Again,” was fashioned with acrylic and oil by the late Arkansas-born, African-American self-taught artist Reverend Albert Wagner. It is one of his many images that has been on view at the — now temporarily closed — American Visionary Art Museum. Several more images of folks on the move by largely self-taught artists that I came upon in varied spaces follow:

82-year-old West Coast-based self-taught artist Helen Rae, “February 22, 2019,” 2019, Colored pencil and graphite on paper — as seen last summer at the Andrew Edlin Gallery; the artist who lives with developmental challenges and a severe hearing impairment has been developing her skills at the progressive Tierra del Sol for the past 30 years.

The late Tennessee-native, African-American self-taught artist Joe Light, Little Hobo, c. 1986, house paint and enamel on found wood — as seen in 2018 at Shrine

A small segment of a collaborative community-based mural — as seen in the largely Arab town of Jaffa in Israel in 2018

The late Bahamas-native, African-American self-taught artist Amos Ferguson, “Man and Children with Horse,” 1987, Enamel on paperboard — as seen earlier this year at Christies

Images of artworks photographed by Lois Stavsky

The image featured above, “The Kingdom,” is the work of the late self-taught Canadian artist Matthew Wong. Fashioned with oil on paper in 2017, it is one of his many seductive landscapes that was on view in his solo exhibition at Karma in the East Village back in spring, 2018 — just months before his tragic death at age 35. Several more images of landscapes, both real and imaginary — all by self-taught artists — follow:

The following untitled landscape — seen last year in his solo exhibition at Shrine on Manhattan’s Lower East Side — was painted by the late self-taught artist Sanford Darling. The former engineer began painting at age 68, and at the time of his death — five years later — he had already painted over 1,000 paintings, covering both the interior and exterior of his Santa Barbara home.

The late Miami-based, self-taught African-American artist Purvis Young, “Cityscape with Cars,” 1987, Oil on found wood — as seen last year in Vernacular Voices at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans

The late Poland-born, New York-based self-taught artist Harry Lieberman, who began painting at age 76, “Two Dreamers,” c. 1966, Oil on canvas — as seen earlier this year in American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum at The American Folk Art Museum

The late Alabama-native, African-American self-taught artist Sister Gertrude Morgan, “New Jerusalem,” c. 1970, Acrylic and tempera on cardboard — as seen earlier this year in American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum at The American Folk Art Museum

Artworks photographed by Lois Stavsky

The alluring image pictured above — seen last year at her solo exhibition at Virdian Artists in Chelsea — was fashioned by the largely self-taught textile artist Mary Tooley Parker. It was one of several of the the artist’s rug-hooking works on display exuding a distinctly warm, domestic tranquility.  Several more images focusing on the notion of Home and interior spaces by a diverse range of largely self-taught artists follow:

Self-taught, legally blind artist Michael Levell, “Untitled,” Graphite and color pencil on paper — presented by the LA-based Tierra del Sol Foundation at the 2019 Outsider Art Fair and now on view in his first solo exhibition at the Tierra del Sol Gallery

The late Toronto-born, self-taught artist Matthew Wong, “Daybreak Blue,” 2018, watercolor on paper — as seen in his 2018 solo exhibition at KARMA in the East Village

New Orleans-based self-taught folk artist Andrew Lamar Hopkins, “The Creole Cottage of John James Audubon,” — as seen earlier this year at The Winter Show NYC at the Park Avenue Armory with Elle Shushan

Brooklyn-based, self-taught multidisciplinary artist Sara Erenthal, “Indifference,” Acrylic on canvas, 2017 — as seen in her solo exhibition at FiveMyles in Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Photos of images by Lois Stavsky

Born in 1942 in central China, Guo Fengyi, a former factory worker and mother of four, started to create art in her late forties. To ease her debilitating arthritis, she had begun practicing qi-gong, an ancient Asian mind-body-spirit form of meditation. In 1989, she started to experience visions, which she went on to translate into vivid, mesmerizing drawings on a range of materials — from the backs of calendar pages to rice paper scrolls. By the time of her death in 2010, she had created over 500 artworks.

Shortly before the world, as we knew it, shuttered, I visited her solo exhibition, Guo Fengyi: To See from a Distance, at The Drawing Center in Soho. Organized by Rosario Güiraldes, Assistant Curator, and Laura Hoptman, Executive Director, it features over 30 of Guo Fengyi’s works — all created in a heightened state of consciousness. Featured above is “Natural Superpower Black Mudra,” fashioned in 1990 with ink on rice paper that was mounted onto a cloth.  Several more images from the artist’s first major institutional presentation in the United States follow:

The Grave of Lao Jun, 1990, Color ink on glazed printing paper

Ear, 1990, Color ink on calendar paper

Organization Diagram of Human Numeric, 2006, Color ink on blueprint paper

Four Diagrams of the Divination Procedures of Zhu Xi’s The Basics of I Ching, 1990, Color ink on rice paper 

You can view a selection of images from this exhibit, along with a video, Introduction to Guo Fengyi, on The Drawing Center Digital Guide, part of the free Bloomberg Connects app that you can download from your mobile phone.

Photos of images by Lois Stavsky

The curious character featured above was fashioned by the reclusive, self-taught Japanese artist Issei Nishimura, whose expressive work I first came upon at the 2019 Outsider Art Fair. Several more images of curious characters crafted by self-taught artists follow:

Japanese visionary, self-taught artist M’onma,“Untitled,” colored pencils — as seen in “Memory Palaces: Inside the Collection of Audrey B. Heckler,” at the American Folk Art Museum in fall, 2019

The late Southern African-American self-taught artist Minnie Evans, “Design Made at Airlie Gardens,” Oil and mixed media on canvas — as seen this past fall at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC

The late Midwestern self-taught artist Bernard Gilardi, “Dogma,” oil on masonite panel — one of his many wonderfully weird artworks that I discovered last year at Shrine Gallery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side

The late Southern self-taught visionary artist Reverend Howard Finster, “Elephant Woman,” mixed media — as seen last year in “Vernacular Voices” at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans

The late self-taught Syrian artist Peter Charlie Besharo, “Lady Liberty of 1953-1962,” Mixed media on paperboard —  as seen this past fall at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC

Photos of artworks by Lois Stavsky