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this week in outsider art features a bodega cat, a devil mask, bill traylor and a gee's bend quilt, plus art from guantánamo bay and posthumous book of poetry

Dec 08, 2024

THIS WEEK IN OUTSIDER ART

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**SIMONE JOHNSON** Bodega Cat (date unknown) // Mixed media on Paper; 20.5 x 23.5 inches via *Pure Vision Arts*

**MAX RAFFLER** Adam and Eve (c.1975) // Watercolor and pencil on paper via *Petullo Art Collection*

**ARTIST UNKNOWN** Devil Mask (c. 1950; Bolivia, South America) // Cotton burlap, plaster, paint; 8 1/4 × 13 × 13 3/4 in. (21 × 33 × 35 cm) via *Museum of International Folk Art*

**FLORIAN KREWER** Untitled (2021) // Oil on linen; 118 x 94 inches (299.5 x 239 cm) via *Michael Werner Gallery*

**BILL TRAYLOR** Mexican Man ("He Just Come to Town") (c. 1939-42) // Pencil and crayon on cardboard; 10 3/16 x 7 5/16 inches via Carl Hammer Gallery

**LUCY T. PETTWAY** Birds In The Air (1981) // Cotton and cotton/polyester blend; 79 × 79 inches via *High Museum of Art*

**TATIANA TRUNOVA** no. 13 (2024) // Oil on canvas; 8" x 10.75" via *PULP Holyoke*

**SYBIL GIBSON** Untitled (1993) // Water-based paint on paper; 13 x 11 1/2 " (33 x 29.2 cm) via *American Folk Art Museum*

**RENÉ GUISSET** The peasant (date unknown) // 23 x 18 x 14.3 cm via *Museé LaM*

**L.W.D** Police Station Portraits (2024) // Oil on Canvas; 20” x 16” (51cm x 41cm) via *Gallery Sade Los Angeles*

**BETHANN PARKER** Cherries on the Sill (2024) // Oil on panel; 8 × 10 in | 20.3 × 25.4 cm via *The Ruffed Grouse Gallery*

**CHRISTOPHER BAME** Untitled (Robot) (date unknown) // Mixed media on paper (Framed); 8.5 inches x 11 inches (in total 9.625 inches x 12.125 inches) — *featured in the “Faces In The Crowd” FolkArtwork exhibit and available for purchase*

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FEATURED ARTIST OF THE WEEK

**GOSIA (Malgorzata Zajac)** Two Snakes and Roses (2024) // Acrylic emulsion and soft pastels; A2 (42 x 59.4 cm) courtesy *the artist*

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WATCHING AND READING

Here are a few things I’ve been watching this past week:

Here are a few things I’ve been reading this past week:

OH WORD?

» “If I Must Die” «

One year ago this week, Palestinian writer and educator Refaat Alareer was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza alongside his brother, sister, and nephews. On December 10th, a posthumous collection of poetry and prose written by Alareer will be released in the book “If I Must Die”.

The great folks at Drop Site News, an independent investigative news is on a mission to push the book not just to the Top 100 selling books (which it is currently around #77), but to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. All proceeds of the sale of the book, from the independently run OR Books publisher, will go to whats left of the surviving members of Alareer’s family.

If you have the means and are able, buy a book for yourself, friends, and family, as a way to support beautiful poetry and writing from a highly thoughtful and well educated man and to keep his words lasting forever.

[The book features] such pieces, some never before published, have been curated here by one of Refaat’s closest friends and collaborators. This collection forms a fitting testament to a remarkable writer, educator, and activist, one whose voice will not be silenced by death but will continue to assert the power of learning and humanism in the face of barbarity. — OR Books

“If I Must Die” can be pre-ordered today and will hit the bookshelves on December 10th.

pre-order now

SHOUT OUT

Shout out the folks at Hyperallergic who continue to do great things — this podcast episode brought to you by my former “Folk Art & Modernism” teacher Isabella Segalovich, featuring the stories and artwork of prisoners from Guantánamo Bay (most of which were in prison for decades without ever being charged with a crime). Thanks to art crime professor Erin L. Thompson and Molly Crabapple you can hear and learn tremendous insight into “Art from Guantánamo”.

learn more

FROM “FACES IN THE CROWD”

**JACKIE BRADSHAW** A snowy bike ride. (2024) // Acrylic on Canvas; 7 inches x 5 inches — *featured in the “Faces In The Crowd” FolkArtwork exhibit and available for purchase*

Jackie Bradshaw is a neurodivergent folk artist from Kitchener, Ontario. After the birth of her son, she started a home daycare and began using leftover paints from the children to create mirror image paintings. Immersed in this process, she began producing hundreds of works and continues to create art to calm her mind and body.

available for purchase

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

» MEET THE COLLECTOR SERIES PART SIXTY-NINE — Adam Oestreich, Iowa «

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