A GALLERY @ WARES FOR ART
TRAVELS TO BALTIMORE

On May 15-May 17 1998 A Gallery @ Wares For Art becomes A Gallery @ the First Annual Baltimore Folk and Visionary Art Show which is being held in conjunction with the long awaited opening of the American Visionary Art Museum's exhibition ERROR AND EROS curated by our good friends John and Maggie Maizels. Since A Gallery's last successful exhibit THE DOOR TO THE INVISIBLE in January 1998 during the NYC Outsider Art Fair where we exhibited the works of over 40 self taught artists ("Folk Art of the 21st Century"), we have had to focus our attentions on a smaller but still extensive group of artists so that we can physically fit into the booth space at the festival ("space-the final frontier"). The artists we will be showing in Baltimore include: from Europe, Gérard Sendrey, Carol Bailly, Ody Saban, Evelyne Postic, Jacques Wakeford, Maggie Daems, Patrick Guallino, Danielle Le Briquir, Jacinta Heijmans, artists of the Mimer Foundation, Ad Maas, Hans Verschoor, Jan Sierts Wierenga, Appie, Willem Vugteveen, artists from the Atelier Herenplaats, Jaco Kranendonk, Paulus de Groot, Ben Augustus, Hans Hartman, Monique van Os, Hein Dingemans, from Canada artists from the collection of Dr. Christian Shriqui and from America, Charles Keeling Lassiter, Ross Brodar, Guy Beining, John Sheldon, Phil Demise Smith, Daniel Belardinelli, Donald Pierce, Carl Benedetto, Paul Humphrey, Jim Prez and Tommy. The festival will take place across from the AVAM along the beautiful Baltimore inner harbor at 801 Key Highway.

from Art Brut to Création Franche

Though it is often considered as a generic name covering all forms of art which stand apart from the overwelming conformism, Art Brut is instead a precise term which applies only to this part of art creation whose criteria of essential being and origin have been precisely defined by Jean Dubuffet in 1945. The concept of Art Brut covers limited types of works. It does not pretend at all, in its objectives, to cover all the works created as a breach with the academic presecriptions prevailing at the time. For those works Jean Dubuffet used the term of art singulier, with indeed a generic bent, even if he assigned also boundaries to them when he set up the Collection Neuve Invention, separate from the Collection de l'Art Brut.
In 1978, with a wider vision, and taking into account (to go beyond them) of the limits already defined, Roger Cardinal proposed the term Outsider Art. This term has been definitely adopted by all English speaking countries and is now superseding all labels spread out in micro-quarters claiming an implicit association with Art Brut. Until then, and in order to make a clear distinction between Art Brut proper and a conglomerate of which it was the core, people referred to "Art Brut and its acquaintances", a vague formula which was allowing all kinds of distortions. The notion of Outsider Art opens right away to a wider field of applications and is more precise regarding the artists involved. The only criticism it could call for is a kind of disparaging view of the works which would definitely appear as subordinated to others that would stand in a relative position of strength. It is in view of this complex situation that the concept of Création Franche was born in Bégles in 1989.

There is a wide consensus today to stress the meaning of the word "creation" which immediately calls to mind a process less imbued with culture than the word "art" which is only remotely synonymous. Nevertheless, in "Création Franche", the true meaning of this word lies in the adjective which complements it. The first meaning of "franche" in French is: free, boundless, without constraints, without obligations..." In fact, it is appropriate to consider that this word conveys the situation of the artists following the war lead during forty years by Art Brut in order to break apart the tight frame of the agreed art. They are free because they have been freed from the heavy laws that governed art making as an exercise in the interplay of references required for social success. Free, as a result of this war which allowed artists to recover the primary condition of their existence, outside the history of art and the parameters it superimposed on artists. Freed by these soldiers of the shadows, their elders of Art Brut.
Thus, Création Franche, instead of being at the margin of the artistic flow, is consciously at the heart of human activity in terms of its interest in the creative act. Jean Dubuffet used to say that cultural art was a mishap of creation. In this respect, the Création Franche stands as a true, tangible and longlasting value of art which claims its modest and magnificent origins, in the name of freedom and truth without which there is no true creation. Here one should pay tribute to Roger Cardinal's fair play who noted in a recent article, "the luminous flexibility of a formula such as Création Franche, which, nevertheless, aims pertinently at what is truly at stake, with, in addition, an assurance of authenticity and of excitation."
To sum up,without forgetting the increasing importance, especially in the U.S. of Folk Art whose roots are in the American ethnic traditions and influences, and because it would be quite difficult to explain what would be made of an art which would not be singular, one can say that the artistic parallel movement today includes two forms which will over time merge into a synonymous entity: Art Outsider and Création Franche.

The Holland Tunnel

A Gallery @ Wares For Art represents two groups of outsider artists from Holland. The first is the Mimer Foundation.
THE MIMER FOUNDATION came into existence after Willem Vugteveen's visit to a psychiatric hospital in the South of France in 1990. In this hospital two expressive artists had been helping the patients develop their creativity - not as creative therapy but simply supporting their artistic and creative initiatives. Since that time, The MIMER FOUNDATION has supported artists that have a psychiatric history and have helped them to return to the art world.
Mimer Foundation artists represented by A Gallery include Hans Verschoor, Ad Maas, Jan Sierts Wierenga, Appie, RJM Heijmans and many more. All works are on paper and the prices range from $200-$1200.
The second of these groups is the Atelier Herenplaats in Rotterdam. Erected in 1991, it is the one and only 'art institute for the mentally handicapped' in the Netherlands. The Herenplaats Studio is an independent work project of the Pameijer Foundation, and has been set up by two artists: Frits Gronert and Richard Bennaars. They supervise and teach eight artists who work in the studio.
Their goals are to develop expressive capacity and while doing so, start the individual, independent expressive process. They try to help the aptitude and talent to blossom.
They do this by teaching them to look around more carefully and by asking them the question: 'How do I see everything around me?' During the lessons the following subject matter is handled: theoretical knowledge about materials and techniques, art viewing and learning to talk about their own work (development).
A Gallery @ Wares For Art represents all the artists who partake in the Herenplaats' program including Jaco Kranendonk, Paulus de Groot, Ben Augustus, Hein Dingemans, Hans Hartman and Monique Van Os. The works are all on paper and the prices range from $200-$800.
The works of both Mimer Foundation and Atelier Herenplaats' artists can be found in the collections of the Museum De Stadshof and the Musée de l 'Art Brut.

GÉRARD SENDREY: At The Heart of Art

Gérard Sendrey is 69 years old and lives in Bégles, a small suburb of Bordeaux, France. He is a self taught artist, who at the age of 39 began to paint. From 1967-1977 Gérard Sendrey was involved in a world full of what he calls "creative lonliness."" After this period he devoted himself more completely to his art and began to draw.
In 1988 he quit his full time executive job and devoted himself completely to his art. He had his first exhibition in 1979 in the cellars of The Galerie du Fleuve. He has since been welcomed into many major museums and collections. Michel Thévoz, the curator of the Musée de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, describes Gérard Sendrey as "surely one of those who choose adventure, uncomfortableness, risk and who prefer the shattering surprise that can be given by a dream of a line to the art lover's approval." His work is part of many major museum collections including Musée de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, Aracine, Museum of Art Brut in Villeneuve d'Ascq, the Fabuloserie in Dicy, De Stadshof Museum in Zwolle and the Museum of American Folk Art.
A Gallery @ Wares For Art has extensive holdings of Gérard's work (over 60 works) all small works on paper in ink, acrylic and "flashe". Prices range from $250-$800.

A GALLERY
Is Exclusive Representative of Early Works of
CHARLES KEELING LASSITER

Charles Keeling Lassiter, born in 1926, in New York. His work has been compared to Jean Dubuffet. His early works which date from the early 1950's , are mostly oils on paper and are very striking expressions which reverberate classical figures and faces in a very 'raw' state. It is a destruction of form as a reflection of our era's cultural crisis but with a strong rhythmic feeling and a rebel's satirical view. His works have been shown at the Création Franche and he is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the Musée de L'Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland.
There are a little over 40 pieces available, most are 15"x20" and some 20"x30" with the present prices in the range of $900-$2000. A Gallery also has a selection of his more recognizable works from the 1960's and 1970's.

, the storytelling legends of the Willetos to the dressed, collage figures of the "Grandma Moses" of Navajo art, Mamie Deschillie, the creations mix selected elements from other societies, infusing each new ingredient with a unique Navajo flavor. The collections concentrate on a group of artists who are experimenting with imaginative genres, tangibly expressed in their media. Private collectors and museum curators such as those of the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Sante Fe, began buying these pieces in the 1980's and today they are recognized as the fastest growing art form on the Navajo reservation and are valued as prime examples of American Folk Art. Other artists represented include the many generations of the Herbert Family, Dan Hot, Mathew Yellowman, Robin Willetto, Lulu Yazzie and more. Prices range from $25 - $1400.

UFO's Identified in
A Gallery Exhibitions

A Gallery was one of the first galleries to recognize and exhibit the works of artists working in the genre of "UFO/Abduction" art. Our first exhibit, Spacial Relationships, took place at both Wares For Art and the Hudson Grill in NYC showing the sculptural works and paintings of John Sheldon, John Spears, Rosemary Osnato, the early works of Ionel Talpazan and many others. The show also featured works depicting 'actual abductions'. It included an opening night of performance, poetry and lectures. The exhibition took place in September of 1996. The show was featured on CNN, Strange Universe and Sightings. It was also featured in an article in the NY Times entitled Alien Beings Abduct Pop Culture: "Anyone stopping in for a game of pool and a Rolling Rock at the Hudson Grill in Soho is greeted by an E.T.-like figure waving from the window. Three feet tall, formed of latex over cotton, he (she?) is the work of John Sheldon...who says he has been fascinated by unidentified flying objects since he sighted a UFO on a fishing trip in Massachusetts with his father in the 1950's. In obscurity, he has made E.T. sculptures for more than a decade."
Then in July and August 1997 A Gallery had it's second show of "Spacial Art" entitled Art From Mars celebrating the first pictures sent back from Mars. It featured over 20 artists' and was the subject of a feature story on Showtime.
At present we represent a group of 'alien-centric' works of art by Ionel Talpazan, John Sheldon, Rosemary Osnato, John Spears and many other individual works. Prices range from $200-$1000

Works Of A Gallery Artists
Ross Brodar & Ad Maas
Chosen For Museum Show

Congratulations to A Gallery artists' Ross Brodar (New York) and Ad Maas (Mimer Foundation-Holland) for having works chosen by John and Maggie Maizels to be included in the American Visionary Art Museum's exhibition ERROR AND EROS:LOVE PROFANE AND DIVINE opening May 15, 1998 in Baltimore.
Ad Maas will have two drawings from his series "The Human Nature of God" in the show. They express, visually and in poetry, a very personal love for the embodiment of the spirit. There are 15 drawings in the complete series all having been made for an A Gallery "Portraits of God" exhibition in 1996. We have put together a book of all the drawings in the series (available for $25). 13 drawings of the series will be exhibited and for sale at the A Gallery booth at the Baltimore Folk and Visionary Art show ($400ea.). All of the drawings can be seen on our website.
Ross Brodar will have a painting on wood exhibited in the show. It is a raw, expressionistic depiction of the anguish of a confrontational love. We will also be featuring a large selection of Ross' mixed media paintings and works on paper at our booth in Baltimore (prices range from $100-$3000).

A Gallery @ Wares For Art
Is Caught In The Net
Of An Intriguing Web

A Gallery @ Wares For Art has finally made the plunge into the Net and onto the world wide web. We established our presence in our new domain in January 1998 with our documentation of the Door to the Invisible show, our catalog of art jewelry and excerpts from our philosophical meaderings. It is just the beginning. Our plans include an online gallery of A Gallery artists with all works available for purchase, a store of selected crafts (jewelry,sculpture, ceramics, glass) related to this type of primitive expression, a selection of related books for purchase, a catalog of our very own popular line of art jewelry and objects, free classifieds for the sale/exchange of art, a forum for discussions on Outsider/Self Taught Art and of course, the WARES THE NEWS newsletter (which you might be reading at our website right now). Eventually we hope to have 'streaming' videos of artists at work and interviews etc. We have been caught in the Net! We hope you enjoy and use our site. Our world wide web address is:

www.waresforart.com
e-mail: info@waresforart.com

IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Excerpts from WARES THE NEWS newsletters 1995-1997

Welcome to the ever expanding universe of A Gallery artists. We are always in the process of discovering and uncovering established and emerging artists who have not yet been recognized but have, in their own solitude, been able to reach a 'playful, whimsical, individual and serious' maturity in their work.

The actual pieces themselves vary in all catagories: size, medium, style and price. Sizes range from 2"x 3" to 3' x 5'; mediums include markers, pencils, oil pastels, crayons watercolors, gouache, acrylics, oils, etchings, dry points, lithographs, etc on paper, canvas, canvas board, cardboard, foamcore, wood, metal, styrofoam, objects etc.; styles range from landscape to figuration to abstraction to primitive to folk to self taught/outsider to very individual styles; prices range from $50 - $5000 with a majority of the pieces under $1000.

In short, we offer 'high end' art at 'low end' prices.

We hope you enjoy your travels through A Gallery.

This is a personal letter about the state of the art and the state of the business at Wares For Art. I am an artist trying to make my art and make a living, a feat of simultaneous proportions. My vision for the store/gallery has been more than realized. We have, I think, a very unique group of artists who are producing 'genuine' art and have a certain spirit of community as well as very individual styles. I have tried to remain true to my humanist tendencies to applaud and show the efforts of honest expression whether or not it fits perfectly within my limited taste and never for its 'salability'. Thus, I think we have accumulated an eclectic and varied art that is connected by sheer context and vision. In fact, it all seems so connected that I have been often asked by new customers "Did you make all this work?" An interesting question for a place that has work representing over 150 artists and crafts people. The store/gallery has also been true to its vision for 'affordable art', trying to keep the prices at a comfortable point on that long spectrum 'between worthless and priceless" - comfortable for the artist, for the customer and for the 'business.' We have entertained poetry, art, music and the human spirit of making. Our integrity is still in tact.

Web Changes

This is where we'll announce the most recent additions to our web site. If you've visited us before and want to know what's changed, take a look here first.

WARES FOR ART Establishes Internet Presence

JANUARY 1 1998.

Recent Media Coverage of WARES FOR ART

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The DOOR TO THE INVISIBLE (Must be Visible) is the second international showing of self taught/outsider/neuve invention/singular/ visionary art - what we are calling "Folk Art of the 21st Century" - organized and presented by A Gallery @ Wares For Art. Following the very successful HOLLAND TUNNEL show in January 1996 which exhibited for the first time, the very important work of Dutch outsider artists from two distinguished groups of artists - The Mimer Foundation and the Atelier Herenplaats.

The Mimer Foundation works with individual artists scattered throughout Holland and includes such artists as Ad Maas, Alfred Hafkenscheid, Hans Verschoor, )an Sierts Wierenga, Pim Van Amerongen, Boudewijn Wolthuis, Appie and Ruth van der Neut. The Atelier Herenplaats situated in Rotterdam is a program funded by the Pameijer Foundation and works with a group of 'mentally handicapped' artists which presently include Jaco Kranendonk, Paulus deGroot, John Kegreisz, Ben Augustus, Carlos, Hans Hartman, Monique van Os and more. Both these groups of artists will be well represented in this show.

The show will also include a good sampling of the many styles of Gerard Sendrey, a central figure in France's very active spheres of 'art brut','singular art' and 'neuve invention'. Other French artists include Evelyne Postic, Ody Saban and )Jacques Wakeford. We are also showing Carol Bailly the American-born, Swiss artist. Many of these artists are included in the "neueve invention' collection of the Art Brut Museum in Lausanne and in many other European collections.

Along side these exciting European artists we will be showing an array of established and emerging, self taught artists from the U.S., including paintings by Ross Brodar, Guy R. Beining, Charles Lassiter, Ellie Ali, Phil Demise Smith, Sally Gellman, Daniel Belardinelli, GKP, Paul Humphrey,'UFO' artists, )John Sheldon and lonel Talpazan and 3 dimensional work by Donald Pierce, Eliot Moses and Carl Benedetto.

The show will run concurrently with the New York Outsider Art Fair (and will be open 3 days before and 3 days after) .This show is, in a way, an extension of that Fair which is limited in space and is unable to accommodate all the new and exciting discoveries from the world outside.

THE DOOR TO THE INVISIBLE will have its opening reception on Saturday, )January 24 at 8PM at the Chuck Levitan Gallery Space, 42 Grand St. (off W. Broadway) Soho. Then, on Sunday, )January 25 beginning at 1 PM at the Chuck Levitan Gallery Space, we will present a 'Meet the Artists" event which will include informal talks by Mimer Foundation president, Willem Vugteveen , Richard Bennaars, co-Director of Atelier Herenplaats program speaking on the art of the mentally handicapped, artist Carol Bailly talking on 'Neuve Invention' and Dr Christian Shriqui, talking on the art of Roland Claude Wilkie.

Simultaneously with this extensive showing, up the block, at our permanent location, A Gallery @ Wares For Art, 496 LaGuardia Place (off Houston St.), we will be showing on The Wall, a series of drawings and poems by Dutch/Mimer Foundation artist, Ad Maas entitled "THE HUMAN NATURE OF COD". These poignant and mysterious works have also been collected in a limited edition book. A whole room at the Outsider Museum de Stadshof in Holland is dedicated to the extraordinary work of this reclusive, poetic artist.

For more information contact A Gallery @ Wares For Art (212) 989-7845 fax (212) 627-1797.

WHAT:
THE DOOR TO THE INVISIBLE (Must Be Visible)
Folk Art of the 21st Century
works by Emerging and Established
Self Taught/Outsider Artists from Europe and USA
and
THE HUMAN NATURE OF GOD
drawings by Ad Maas
WHERE:
THE DOOR TO THE INVISIBLE
at A Gallery @ Chuck Levitan Gallery Space
42 Grand St. (between Thompson and West Broadway)
212-966-2782
THE HUMAN NATURE OF GOD
at A Gallery @ Wares For Art
496 LaGuardia Place (between Houston and Bleecker St.) 212-598-4ART (598-4278)
WHEN:
THE DOOR TO THE INVISIBLE
January 19-28 1998
opening reception Saturday January 24 @ 8PM
'Meet the Artists' Sunday January 25 @ 1-5PM
Informal Talks on Outsider Art by
Willem Vugteveen, Richard Bennaars, Carol Bailly, Dr. Christian Shriqui
THE HUMAN NATURE OF GOD
JANUARY 5- 31 1998
for more information please contact A Gallery @ Wares For Art (212) 989-7845 fax (212) 627-1797

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - OUT AND ABOUT
This show is part of trio of shows that A Gallery is presenting in the month of January to run concurrently with The NYC Outsider Art Fair. The other shows are THE DOOR TO THE INVISIBLE folk art of the 21st century at A Gallery @ the Chuck Levitan Gallery Space and THE HUMAN NATURE OF GOD, drawings by Ad Maas at A Gallery @ Wares For Art.

Out and About is a very special group show curated by Jim Prez whose unique talent as a curator comes from being an artist himself and being an avid discoverer of new, innovative artists who work on the periphery. In this grouping Tim has chosen a wide variety of artists who are both geographically and stylistically varied. The artists come from Florida, Puerto Rico, Vermont, Georgia, New York City, Oklahoma and the mountains of Colorado. The medium of their works range from wood to pillow cases to canvas to cardboard to paper and their subjects include, the Bible, T.V personalities, animals and flowers, doctors in the operating room, the Titanic, Hollywood stars and memory paintings all a kind of Outsider Pop Art. Jim is including works by V. Hecht, an artist whose work he found in a Thrift Shop. Very little is known about her. Her works include paintings of TV Personalities such as Mary Tyler Moore, Archie Bunker, Marcus Welby, Johnny Carson and Sonny and Cher and Chastity. Also being shown are works on wood by Roy Finster, the son of the 'Outsider legend' Howard Finster. We are also showing Paul Humphrey whose hand colored drawings of "Sleeping Beauties" are also being shown at The Door to the Invisible show. Paul started out by painting sleeping faces on pillow cases and eventually, in 1992, after suffering a stroke which affected his entire left side, he began his extensive series of drawings which he "Xeroxes and then colors the copies."

Jim Prez describes the artists this way: "Zoa has two children and lives in the Colorado Rockies. Kate lives in Oklahoma and studies the Bible. Tino and Carol live upstate New York, outside of Syracuse. Roy lives in Sommerville, Georgia. Howard is his dad. V. Hecht was from Florida. She is no longer among the living. Paul lives in Vermont where he was a house painter until he had a stroke. Carol does not like the cold. She never comes up north of St. Petersburg, Florida. Max lives in the East Village but spends a lot of time in Vermont."

WHAT:
OUT AND ABOUT
paintilzgs on calzvas - cardboard - paper - pillow cases - wood
by
Zoa Ace - Kate Bluejacket - Tino and Carol Ferro - Roy Finster- V. Hecht Paul Humphrey Carol Morrison - Hiram Santiago - Max Schuman (curated by Jim Prez)
WHERE:
A GALLERY @ THE HUDSON GRILL
350 Hudson Street (corner King Street)
New York City 212-691-9060
WHEN:
JANUARY 7 - JANUARY 30 1998
opening reception Wednesday January 21, 1998 8PM
for more information please contact A Gallery @ Wares For Art (212) 989-7845 fax (212) 627-1797

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