See original works by art brut artists at this exhibition in Shibuya

'Art Brut 2021 Special Exhibition: Unframed – The limitless flight of creativity and imagination' is one of the Tokyo Tokyo Festival's many events. After touring parts of the capital including Nakano and Fussa, the exhibition is closing out its run at the Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery, where it will be on until September 26.

The exhibition’s focus is squarely on art brut or ‘outsider art’, a term coined by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe artworks created by people with no formal art training, employing visionary ideas and forms of expression. The Shibuya edition of Unframed features works by eight Japanese and three overseas artists, all emanating a sense of freedom, honesty and creativity that makes the exhibition’s title feel particularly apt.

You can see works like this one by Madge Gill, a pioneering art brut artist. Placed in an orphanage as a child, she went to live with her aunt at the age of 19 and was introduced to spiritualism and astrology. After giving birth to a stillborn child and almost dying, she took a sudden and intense interest in art, drawing more than 1,000 images of women, mostly using black ink, over the following 40 years. 

The featured artists’ creative processes are also highly original. For example, Akemi Sato does not use a paint palette at all. Instead, she holds a wet brush in her right hand and a paint tube in the left, squeezing paint directly onto the brush as she goes and adjusting the color by loading the brush with some water when necessary. Sato began creating the riotous work 'Cooperation' (below) by drawing the rhino in the lower middle part first.

Also notable is how some of the artists do not hesitate to paint over their own work again and again, opting for a different definition of when a piece is finished.

A Japanese-language audio guide explaining the background of each work is available for free at the venue. The guide is narrated by Kom_i, the vocalist of Wednesday Campanella, whose distinctive sensibility has won her a sizeable international fanbase.

For Kom_i, the art brut works at the exhibition are pure reflections of the artists’ inner impulses, rather than something created for other people’s eyes. ‘These artists didn't expect their work to be exhibited like this,’ she notes. ‘That's the biggest difference [here] compared to usual exhibitions.’ 

‘I was particularly moved by Katsutoshi Saito’s works,’ she says. ‘I felt like I wanted to enter the drawings and drive through their landscapes. His works have the power to make you want to imagine yourself within them. Saito’s art often spans across several pages in his sketchbooks, from front to back, and he then combines the pages in his mind. This exhibition lets you peek into the artist's head by viewing the contents of his sketchbooks in their entirety.’

‘For me, art is something that can be separated from daily life and made “sacred”...But the “sacred” and the everyday are all jumbled up when it comes to these works – some of the most intricate pieces on display have random scribblings on them, like day-to-day notes or names of people the artist met. Viewing them made me question why I've been distinguishing between daily life and art. One of the artists in this exhibition sometimes works while brushing their teeth. My life could be more chaotic and funny, too! They taught me to appreciate the importance of being true to your inner impulses. I hope everyone who attends this exhibition will be able to make discoveries like that.’

Among the foreign artists, one who caught Kom_i’s eye was France’s François Jauvion, whose colourful, pop art-inspired works reference his favourite artists – especially those engaged with art brut. Each artist is depicted nude, surrounded by clothing, tools, artworks and other items that represent that person.

In addition to the 11 artists’ works, the exhibition displays panels and notes created as part of a project called New Angle Navigators. These feature insights and new perspectives on art brut from journalist and documentary filmmaker Shiori Ito and culinary expert Yoshiharu Doi.

An exhibition guide written in plain Japanese is available for free at the entrance. If you’re studying Japanese, the guidebook makes for an educational and fun tool. And if you’re looking to deepen your knowledge of the artworks even further, don’t leave before checking out the books available in the gallery's Interactive Space.