Pure Visionaries
Works by 5 Outsider Artists
Ricky Hagedorn
Wendy Gell
Jessica Park
Henry Luther Loomis
Christopher Platt
Co-Curator: MARGARET BODELL,
director of The Viewing Room Gallery, Chelsea, NYC.
Ricky Hagedorn, Christopher Platt, and Jessica Park suffer from Autism,
a condition originating in infancy, characterized by subjective mental activity,
occasional verbal communication, and a state
of severe withdrawal; a condition not yet understood by researchers.
Ricky Hagedorn likes to make pictures of cars and airplanes on wood shingles using enamel and acrylic paint in rich primary colors, and his representations come to life: the chrome gleams and the sun beats down on the roof. He annotates his works with his own hieroglyphic system that identify the date of the work.
Wendy Gell is an artist and a jewelry designer. In the early 1970's
she was a published songwriter in Manhattan, and a cab driver, until an ingenious
birthday gift given to a fashion designer became the seed of a new business.
With her invention of the "Wristie," a Swarovski jewel-encrusted bracelet
cuff, Gell went from working on the kitchen table in her Bleeker Street apartment
to become the "Darling of the fashion industry," according to the
trade magazines, and stories in The Village Voice. Gell's jewelry was seen on
the covers of fashion magazines, worn by Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Isabella
Rossilini, and Cher, and in the collections of Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor,
Elton John, Hillary Clinton, and Andy Warhol. Along with her erotic oil paintings,
she is also fond
of painting Pet Portraits, and is available for commissions.
Henry Luther Loomis has been making art since he was 5, beginning
with carving duck decoys and birds of wood. At the time, his father even suggested
that he sell his carvings, but later objected strenuously when Loomis, sent
to study Pre-Med at Yale, decided instead to pursue the Fine Arts.
He studied with Jack Tworkov, Al Held, Richard Lytle, Bernard Chaet, and Lester
Johnson. His landscapes provide an integration of Reality which could only be
perceived by a mind which has struggled with the forces which disintegrate reality.
Jessica Park creates ink prints with colors of surreal brilliance. She started out painting radio dials and clocks, and has recently focussed on painting pictures of important bridges, churches, and landmark city buildings, with the intricate line detail of a skilled architect. She has become a nationally recognized artist, recently enjoying a sold-out show at Margaret Bodell Gallery, with a book-signing for "Exiting Nirvana" about her life, written by her mother Clara Claiborn Park.
Christopher Platt, of Watertown, CT, uses pen and ink and each day makes
a precise drawing of a mansion, which he says, serves as a home for a doctor,
a lawyer, or a psychiatrist. He also draws
his own designs of jewelry, with uncanny precision and detail.

"Isetta 1957" by Ricky Hagedorn
8 x 10" acrylic on wood
York Square Cinema Gallery
Exhibition: January 1 - February 1, 2003
Reception : Sunday, January 19, 4-6 PM
Gallery curator, Johnes Ruta, (203) 387-4933,
azothgallery@comcast.net; http://azothgallery.com/