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Nice Work! #2 Howard Finster’s “Landscape with Jewls”

By Matt Stangel
March 5, 2015
Visual Art

Artist: Howard Finster

Title: “Landscape with Jewls”

Medium: Diorama; paint, wood, plexiglass, “jewls,” etc.

Gallery: Portland Museum of Modern Art

Show: Space Is My Future, solo exhibition, Jan. 31 – Mar. 14, 2015

 

IMG_4160The Artist On The Work:

“I don’t apologize for my mestakes on this work

for I got my education from my mestakes

A miss printed coin is worth much more than a perfect one

Men are more liable to notice your mestakes

More than your good work”

(via)

The Critic’s Experience:

Selecting a quote for sacred folk artist Reverend Howard Finster’s “Landscape with Jewls” wasn’t easy. He passed in 2001, so I can’t inquire about the piece as I would with a living artist. But that seems to be a moot point. The more of Finster I encounter, the more his paintings, sculptures, dioramas, and everything else appear to operate like quotes in and of themselves. His works are adorned with biblical scripture and personal musings, words signifying language and ideology as much as they do Finster the man—the sleepless preacher scrawling sermons and mantras on whatever flat surface presents itself.

Finster is responsible for Paradise Garden, a sprawling sacred art environment created on a multi-acre plot in Georgia, and was featured in the 1984 Venice Biennial, to which he famously commented, “Brother, I’ve been to Venus several times and I don’t need to go back.” A true Appalachian charmer.

Submit to “Nice Work!” right here. Please introduce yourself, provide a link to your art, and mention any current projects you think we’ll dig.

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