Southern California artist Barry Simons’ provocative images have generated an amazing response. Not only has his work sold out at the Outsider Art Fairs in New York since being introduced in 1995, but it has been accepted into the permanent collections of the Oakland Museum of California, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, N.M.
While some of his pieces are single color ink-on-paper works, Simons usually applies vivid colors with pen or brush, and he often uses collage, which adds another dimension of texture and depth. Simons also includes text in some pieces, ranging from a word or thought to a poem. He draws intimate, dreamy portraits of the life of his mind, in which the accidental coffee spill might be used to reconfigure a work in progress. Most often figurative, the mood can be angry or joyous, his subjects in harmony or opposition, yet they are always rich and compelling, with an extraordinary ability to grip the viewer.
His poems and short stories were published in small press books in the 1970s, and he has been painting since 1976, on a "quest to release the visionary artist I felt living inside me. So far the journey has lead me through many rented rooms and coffee shops in East Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley and I’m still looking for that one free refill of coffee with a picture of Rembrandt on the napkin." Simons has been represented by The Ames Gallery since 1994.
[price range: $400-5,000]
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