SOLD. Anne Johnson & Outsider Art
Artist Statement:
‘In my art I do a lot of collage work. I make abstracts using design and colour and try to make beautiful, joyous pictures. I also make portraits showing my sense of humanity. I knew as a very young girl that I wanted to be an artist. However, my life took a turn that I was not expecting –
. My real life, not the life that I or my Parents’ dreamt about when I was a child, has brought be suffering, but has also shown me many insights into the realities of life that I would not have seen if I had remained in the path in which I was supposed to follow. Who knows which would have been better… ” – Anne Johnson
Biographical Statement
I was born in Montreal, Quebec and moved to Ottawa in 1989. I studied library science at Concordia University and art at the Ottawa School of Art. I have been associated with the Bytown Art Group for fifteen years. I have art in the private collection of Claudette Bradshaw as well as in private collections in Ottawa, Montreal, and Washington D.C.
Education
Concordia University, 1985 Bachelor of Arts, Library Studies
Ottawa School of Art, 1990-1994
Photography, painting, life drawing, printmaking, art history, design, art and cinema
Algonquin College, 2003 Fundraising management
Exhibits and Projects
2004 -2011 art shows at : La petite mort gallery, Timothy’s café, Chex Lucien, Agora Café 2003 – National CMHA show, West block Parliament
2002 – CD cover for songwriters at Rasputin’s
2002 – Gallery 101
2001 – For Her Gallery solo show
2001 – City Hall foyer
1997-2002 Bytown Art Group shows: Rasputins’, Heartwood Gallery, ITS Consultants Ltd, Arts court, Shanghai Restaurant, Ottawa public Library, Stone Angel café.
Press Releases
2003- New RO Television newscast
2002- New RO Television newscast
2002- Rogers Television
2002- CBC Newscast
2001- Le Droit article written by Valerie Lessard
1999- CBC Radio interview with Laura Fagan
1999- Art published in Metro Magazine
1999- Appeared in TV Ontario’s broadcast on Bytown Art Group
Artist’s Statement
I believe that creativity is important to healing! My art expresses feelings of fear, negativity and libido as well as inner peace, anguish, and imagination. It exposes my feelings to the public eye in a socially acceptable way.
What is Outsider Art:
Outsider Art is art by self-taught or naïve art makers. Typically, those labeled as outsider artists have little or no contact with the mainstream art world or art institutions. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds.
The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut (French: [aʁ bʁyt], “raw art” or “rough art”), a label created by French artistJean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by those on the outside of the established art scene, using as examples psychiatric hospital patients and children.
Outsider art has emerged as a successful art marketing category; an annual Outsider Art Fair has taken place in New York since 1993, and there are at least two regularly published journals dedicated to the subject. The term is sometimes misapplied as a catch-all marketing label for art created by people who are outside the mainstream “art world” or “art gallery system”, regardless of their circumstances or the content of their work. A more specific term, “outsider music“, was later adapted for musicians.