The Latest Stuff - Page 19 of 42

An art profusion at the Souls Grown Deep warehouse in Atlanta

December 17, 2016 Bill Swislow

Souls Grown Deep — Art Gone Wild

A recent visit to the Souls Grown Deep/Bill Arnett art warehouse in Atlanta was even more mind boggling than reports had led me to expect. The space was bigger and the profusion of work more out of control. A modest selection was more or less set out for easy viewing, but that represented only a fraction of the collection. There were boxes and racks and cases and cartons of work spread around two massive rooms, corrals of sculpture, stacks of drawings, piles of books — just what you’d expect from a collecting mission that has outrun any efforts to organize

December 11, 2016 Bill Swislow

Howard Finster Time!

Experience Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden, site of a one-person creative flowering like few the world has ever seen. Also, see the Sidewalks of Paradise Garden. Read a review of Norman Girardot’s enlightening exploration of Finster’s art and theology. Visit my archival Howard Finster page.

December 1, 2016 Bill Swislow

Cross and Snowflake Sculptures by Stanley Szwarc

At Intuit through Jan. 8, 2017 — Cross Purposes: Cross and Snowflake Sculptures by Stanley Szwarc, curated by Rich Bowen and William Swislow. Stanley Szwarc, a Polish book keeper turned metal worker and then artist after arriving in the United States, gave no indication of being particularly religious, but in his world crosses were powerful.

Buildings embedded in the sidewalk at Howard Finster's Paradise Garden, circa 1990

November 30, 2016 Bill Swislow

The Sidewalks of Paradise Garden

Among the most stunning features of Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden in Summerville, Georgia, are its sidewalks. Some bear representational images of buildings, others are abstract aggregations of potsherds. Some bear text messages, others are virtual encyclopedias of Finster’s tools. These mosaic ribbons threading through the garden are a potent representation of how his creativity found expression in every aspect of the environment around him.

Side-entrance-to-the-compound-St.-Eoms-Pasaquan-2016

November 22, 2016 Bill Swislow

Inside The Land of Pasaquan

Pasaquan, one of the world’s great art sites, lies tucked away in rural west central Georgia, near the little town of Buena Vista. Pasquan was the creation of Eddie Owens Martin, a local boy who went away to live the low life in New York City (by his own account), but came back and created a masterpiece. That Martin was a bit of a crackpot is hard to deny. A fortune-telling ex-street-hustler, he created a personal religion, enshrined himself as a saint and turned his family farm into a holy place. The strength of his vision is so great, though,

November 3, 2016 Bill Swislow

A World in Salt & Pepper Shakers

Salt and pepper shakers pack concentrated meanings into tiny packages — miniature appliances, little foods, dwarf monuments, pint-size people, tiny bits of abstraction. They can be elegant or kitschy, modern or backward looking, but at best they resonate in a myriad of ways. Visit the Gallery

October 23, 2016 Bill Swislow

Open House Chicago 2016

Some highlights from the October 16, 2016, Open House Chicago.

October 15, 2016 Bill Swislow

Prairie Style Masterpiece

Carl Schurz High School is one of Chicago’s most beautiful school buildings and was included on the 2016 Open House Chicago tour.

October 9, 2016 Bill Swislow

Llangollen’s Carved Wonderland

Wales’ Plas Newydd was the seat of the famous Ladies of Llangollen, Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby. Inside is their collection of old wood carvings from the 18th century and earlier (but no photos allowed!). Outside the house is covered with carvings, some placed after the ladies lived there and coated with heavy black paint. It’s a spectacular home in a spectacular setting. Plus, the story of the ladies themselves is fascinating — Anglo-Irish gentry who eloped twice (they were caught both times but only forced apart the first) and settled together in the Welsh countryside, where they lived a

September 26, 2016 Bill Swislow

The Decorated Gyros

The painter of this sign for the Kebab Centre, Camden Passage, London, was not concerned with rendering a realistic gyros but rather embellishing it with grillwork-style details. Unique among the 500-plus images in The Gyros Project.