Illustrated
A selection of I, Braineater paintings and Jim Cummins in his studio. We have a number of early I, Braineater paintings and prints, some from the late 1980s including artist’s proofs.
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I, Braineater
Jim Cummins is a well known Canadian lowbrow artist and musician from Vancouver, known as “I, Braineater”. His name originated from the 1970s which was the name of his punk rock band. The Braineaters disbanded, leaving him to a solo career as I, Braineater. Under this name, this Vancouver visual and performing artist has consistently been an animated personality on the Vancouver music and art scene, whose work has become incorporated in the popular culture of the west coast.
The production and promotion of Jim Cummins under the “I, Braineater” persona has been a nonstop assemblage of recordings, paintings, posters, I, Braineater furniture, jewelry, T-shirts, and frenzied live performances. His renegade persona and his eccentric images of cartoon Blockheads and wild visions painted in heavy gloss enamel have become the champions of anti-high art in Vancouver. Without grants, without a commercial gallery liaison, without art school, without musical training, Jim Cummins continues to sell out his one-man exhibitions on opening night and use the proceeds to record his own albums, produce more original works and to print and produce both artistic and commercial graphic art. He is the creator of the distinctive Blockhead character which can be found on paintings, prints, album covers and pop culture items ranging from fridge magnets to t-shirts. Each of his works is labeled with names, phrases or statements which are diverse in their brutal humor and ironic sensuality. He has designed numerous album covers for Canadian and international bands including for The Pointed Sticks, Skinny Puppy and Big John Bates. His music videos have appeared on Much Music and Bravo. Jim has appeared in a recent Marcus Rogers Bravo documentary on the Low Brow movement entitled the Lowdown on Lowbrow, on the CBC and will be the subject of an upcoming documentary on the west coast punk rock scene. His works have appeared in a number of films including Terminal Ricochet and Freddie Got Fingered.
Jim has been called “a painter of densely disturbing, vaguely amusing pictures and a sculptor of strange, human-type shapes that mock and employ you to take stock of your own imagination.” Jim himself has been quoted as saying that “he tries to break as many rules as possible” and that “it’s only when you hit a nerve that you know that you’re on the right track.” His colorful cartoony figures have been called “both foreign and familiar-feeling simultaneously and appear created from plasticene: weird and wonderful sculptures … strange, enigmatic stuff like Jim Cummins’ mind.”
Exhibits. Jim Cummins has shown his work and held more than sixty exhibitions in Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle, Los Angeles, Montreal and Amsterdam and is represented in several Canadian public collections (the Vancouver Art Gallery and the National Gallery) and many private collections.
Lowbrow Art. Some of the early artists in what has become known as “lowbrow art” were underground cartoonists including Robert Williams and Gary Panter. Early lowbrow shows were held in alternative art galleries in New York and Los Angeles including the Psychedelic Solutions Gallery in Greenwich Village in New York run by Jacaeber Kastor, the La Luz de Jesus Gallery run by Billy Shire and the Zero One Gallery in Hollywood, run by John Pochna. In Canada, lowbrow artists including Jim Cummins have held numerous one man and joint shows, as well as multi-media art and music shows. The magazine Juxtapoz by Robert Williams, which was first published in 1994, has been a central source of information and writing on the lowbrow art movement. Some commentators have noted also that there are distinctions that can be made between a distinct U.S. “west coast” lowbrow style, influenced by underground commix and hot rod car culture, and its style elsewhere.
References. For references on the lowbrow art movement, see Kirsten Anderson, Pop Surrealism: The Rise of Underground Art (2005), Matt Dukes Jordan, Weirdo Deluxe: The Wild World of Pop Surrealism and Lowbrow Art (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2005), Aaron Rose and Christian Strike, Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture (2004) and Sherri Cullison, Vicious, Delicious and Ambitious: 20th Century Women Artists (2002). See also “Lowbrow” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowbrow) and “The Lowdown on Lowbrow” (www.thetartgallery.com).
Steve Szentesi | Fine Art
We are dealers of fine art and antiques located in Toronto and Vancouver and deal in fine Canadian, American and European paintings, sterling silver, antique clocks and vintage wristwatches, coin collections, tribal art from Southeast Asia and the Pacific and other fine and unusual objects. Our services include the purchase and sale of fine art and antiques, the evaluation of private collections, downsizing services and prop and set rentals for television and film.
Purchasing
We are always interested in purchasing fine quality oil paintings, sterling silver, coin collections, antique clocks and vintage wristwatches, bronze, English and European porcelain, travel and exploration collections, antique maps, tribal art from Southeast Asia and the Pacific and other fine and unusual objects.
Canadian Art
We are also always interested in purchasing Canadian paintings, prints, watercolours, drawings, sketches and signed material including by the Group of Seven, Frank Carmichael, Frederick Varley, W.J. Phillips, Mary Bell Eastlake, Goodridge Roberts, Jack Shadbolt, Dorothy Knowles, Albert Franck, Toni Onley, Paul Kane, Henri Masson, Emily Carr, William Kurelik, A.Y Jackson, AJ.Casson, Lawren Harris, David Milne, Clarence Gagnon, John Hammond, Franz Johnston, Nicholas De Grandmaison, Stanley Cosgrove, Norval Morrisseau and Cornelius Krieghoff.
Tribal Art
We are also always interested in purchasing fine and unusual tribal art, artifacts and material culture items from Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand), Indonesia (particularly Nusa Tenggara including the islands of Sumba, Timor, Alor, Tanimbar and the Moluccas) and the South Pacific generally including carvings, masks, spears, arrows, bows, knives, bronze jewelry and figures, silver jewelry, beads, maps, travel albums, antique photographs, hairpins, headpieces, bone, ivory and other interesting and old objects.
Contact Us
Visit our website at www.szentesifineart.com, our EBay listings at Cranberrypark Listings, or contact us at 905.271.7075 (Toronto & Mississauga), 778.867.5558 (Vancouver) or info@szentesifineart.com.