COURT TREE COLLECTIVE AT OUTSIDER ART FAIR 2025
Proudly Featuring:
Jacob Gerard, Yool Kim, Jasper Stieve, Mary Limonade, and JIEM
Public Days:
Friday, February 28 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
Saturday, March 1st: 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
Sunday, March 2nd: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
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JACOB GERARD is a true outsider artist with no formal training. His work is powerful, brilliant in creativity, and rich in humor. His colors, brightness, attention to details, emphasize a scale of production usually found in a well seasoned educated artist. In less than 2 years of painting exclusively he has amassed a small arsenal of paintings that would be considered a full career for many. Whether this is an attempt to never go back to construction or years of pent up creativity the current results will last a lifetime. At this moment in time all signs point to this being the beginning of a flourishing artistic career.
YOOL KIM, a Seoul-based artist, navigates ideas of identity and subconscious mind through mixed media artwork. Her paintings focus on figures expressing a form of disorder. This is seen not through just facial expressions, but extends throughout the painting to express dissatisfaction and dizziness that come from the human experience. Kim’s work often highlights self expression that have not yet matured, an expression stunted in growth. Her desire is to organize these emotions through her artwork.
Kim was born in 1982 and graduated from Hongik University Graduate School of Industry in 2015 with a degree in Color Studies.
JASPER STIEVE is a self taught mixed media artist who is heavily influenced by industrious settings and admires the fluent chaos found in city scapes. Primarily working with found objects and in airbrush, his work often encourages interaction, pushing away the common “do not touch” principle. He is a household name in the NYC skateboarding community and recently created his own niche fashion brand. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
MARY LIMONADE is a Belgian self-taught artist. Her work features a strong spirit of independence, through a great freedom of action and a wide range of practices. In addition to graphic and illustrative concepts in her paintings, she is also a prolific street artist and muralist. Her paintings are nostalgic and ebullient in memories, overflowing with anecdotes and bittersweet feelings. All of her works have a freshness to them, free of academic rules and the standards of representation.
JIEM lives in Lille in Northern France. He paints there in his studio and all over European streets and walls. He has a long and wild history with graffiti. His work is greatly influenced by his explorations and travels. He is a self-taught artist working in a “faux naïf” style. He enjoys the freedom of this expression and his work benefits from this lifestyle. Subcultures, social interactions, diverse cultures often dominate the subjects in his work.
“Tipa Tipa, N’ap Avanse” exhibition
Exhibition runs from Feb 22 - Mar 23, 2025Court Tree Collective is proud to present “Tipa Tipa, N’ap Avanse” an exhibition celebrating the resilience and creativity of Haitian artist Charles Art Jerry, alongside the evocative works of mepaintsme and Michael McGrath, and art by the talented students of Art School Jerry in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
The title, Tipa Tipa, N’ap Avanse (Step by Step, We Move Forward), reflects both the steady journey of artistic growth and Haiti's enduring strength amidst ongoing social and political conflicts. This show highlights the transformative power of art in preserving culture and fostering hope in the face of adversity.
Charles Art Jerry’s vibrant works honor Haiti’s Vodou heritage, while his students’ creations offer fresh perspectives shaped by the realities of their lives and their community’s spirit. mepaintsme and Michael McGrath, dedicated supporters of Art School Jerry, are honored to present their own works alongside this remarkable collective in a celebration of progress and connection.
This exhibition invites us to reflect on the struggles and aspirations of communities both in Haiti and the U.S., celebrating art as a universal tool for fostering connection, cultural preservation, and forward momentum.
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Charles Art Jerry is a Haiti-based painter whose work delves into the rich traditions of Haitian Voodoo and the natural world. His passion for art was ignited after participating in the "Ghetto Biennial," an artistic festival celebrating Haitian Voodoo and black magic culture. His paintings feature Veve symbols—sacred religious and spiritual motifs—which he believes can bring success to those who have faith in their power. His artwork has been showcased at his art school in Haiti and exhibited in galleries worldwide.
Since 2016, Charles Jerry has been providing free art lessons to children in his community of Port au Prince, where students learn to paint as well as learn about Haitian history and culture. He sells not only his own work, but also helps his students sell their paintings. The money his students make selling their art helps them pay school fees and buy food and clothing.
mepaintsme (pseudonym) is an artist and curator who lives and works in the United States. He received a BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and attended artist residencies at AICAD, New York Studio Residency Program (New York, NY) and the Santa Fe Masters Program (Santa Fe, NM). For the past 30 years, he has worked as an illustrator and painter. He currently runs the online gallery MEPAINTSME with his partner, and is the sole curator behind the @mepaintsme Instagram account.
Michael McGrath lives and works in Rhinebeck, in New York's Hudson Valley. His recent work is inspired by his current upstate NY environment and its history, and also in his curiosity in the cults of mysticism, mythology and religion through the lens of naivety. He is interested in religion, magic and mythology, and also more mundane aspects of daily life. His ghosts and skulls symbolize death and afterlife, with a measure of happiness and hope. His faces are often gods, deities or the deceased, and he imagines that “…if there were gods, ghosts or magic, they would exist in nature and in the landscape; not just beings in the sky, but also in the ground, in the trees, in the flowers and in the animals.”
Michael’s work has bee exhibited in Rhinebeck, New York, Germany, Belgium, and a solo show at Fir Gallery in Beijing, China.
“LIKE WOLVES” duo exhibition
Exhibition runs from Jan 11th - Feb 15, 2025Court Tree Collective is proud to present LIKE WOLVES featuring Australian painter Saxon Quinn and Brooklyn based painter John Vitale. Both represent a new breed of abstract painters pushing their DIY instincts into newfound territories. Like flowing rivers they navigate from the energy of their great source. Not planned or charted, but precise in delivery. Wild and unhinged, yet focused and consistent. Passion and dedication encompasses the virtue in each gesture and stroke. We are excited to share this energy with our community.
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SAXON JJ QUINN is a self-taught mixed media artist interested in the rough, the worn and the resilient. Born in country Victoria, Saxon spent his childhood surrounded by creativity. His artist mother tied a basket to the ceiling of her studio where, as a baby, he would swing while she worked. As he grew older, he began sketching, painting and experimenting with clay, at times accidentally defacing her works in the process.
After studying Communication Design and building his career in Melbourne, Saxon moved to New York City, immersing himself in the city and its urban patina.The beauty he found in the aged and weathered elements were cemented as the foundation of his creative work, and painting became the outlet.
Now, from his home in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Saxon primarily uses canvas, graphite and paint, layering hues, symbols and textures to create works that sway from the intentional to the unrestrained, the minimalist to the uninhibited. Each piece bears meaningful motifs alongside elements of mischievous humour, with each mark representing an aspect of his life. These marks are arranged precisely to induce a sensory effect, where a calming constellation can be found in a world of perceived chaos.
JOHN VITALE was born 1979. He is a largely self-taught abstract painter, based in brooklyn, ny, where he lives with his partner and works in his studio in sunset park. He has exhibited in Taiwan, up and down the west coast, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and New York City. His work is in public and private collections in many parts of the world.
Vitale’s paintings are explorations of the human experience that blend organic shapes, lines, plateaus, and rich color palettes into captivating visual narratives. What unfolds from his investigations are isolated experiments, each embodying textured negative space. He is meticulous in his intention; after weeks of unresolved work, a single minor mark- or the erasure of one- a small color change or shift in a shape’s boundary can realize the finality of a painting. Using a combination of acrylic, housepaint, enamels, pencils, canvas scrap, and oil sticks to create his works, Vitale layers materials to create tangible archives of time and experience.
Vitale’s work aims to deconstruct and compartmentalize the chaos that imbues society daily. He views each painting as a learning experience- an exploration of the environment that encompasses him. A meditation on complex human problems, and a search for answers to these conundrums. This process is how he learns to make sense of the incessant inventory of information that one must ingest.
“In Last Place” by Craigie Harper
Exhibition runs until Dec 28th
Craigie Harper “In Last Place” exhibition
Exhibition runs from Nov 16th - Dec 28th, 2024“Kilmarning is a parochial Scottish town that is not too dissimilar to where I live. These paintings are partly autobiographical, partly fictitious.They are often based on real events from my life or the lives of people close to me. I paint a townsfolk who, despite their best efforts, invariably fall short against life.
One subject I often return to is sport. I work through my interest in and aversion to sport by painting Kilmarning United, a bottom-of-the-leagu football team that never wins anything. This antipathy towards spor stems from growing up with a progressive nerve condition that meant I wasn’t very good at it. Discerning peers picked me last for team sports, and finishing every race in last place was inevitable.
The title of this exhibition, In Last Place, reflects my sporting prowess and the spirit of Kilmarning. How I relate to my physical predicament an the humour and pathos I try to convey in painting are closely tied.”
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Yoko Watanabe (Tetotutito) “Tasokare” exhibition
Exhibition runs from Nov 16th - Dec 28th, 2024
“Tasokare”
There is a moment that feels almost enchanted—just before dawn, or just after dusk—when the world is still cloaked in mist and forms haven’t yet sharpened into focus. It’s as if, in the fading light, we step into an entirely new realm. Standing in the twilight, everything feels transformed.
This moment is what the Japanese call “tasokare”, when time seems to stop, and you become suspended in emptiness, gazing inward. In today’s fast-paced world, everything moves at a dizzying speed. Even when I stand my ground, trying not to be swept away, there’s always a sense of unsteadiness beneath my feet, as if I’m out of sync with the rhythm of things. Lately, I’ve found myself gasping for breath. My hope is that, when you’re surrounded by my figurines, you’ll be able to pause, take a breath, and simply “feel”.
The word “tasokare” comes from a Japanese expression meaning, “Who are you?”. It is used when you can’t quite make out someone’s face in the fading light. “Taso” means “who,” and “kare” means “you.” It’s the feeling of standing at the end of a long day, watching the sun dip below the horizon, and drifting into thoughts far removed from the details of everyday life. Your mind begins to wander to distant places, or to long-forgotten memories and futures yet imagined. This state of being—of stepping away from the frenzy of the moment and into a kind of timelessness—is “tasokare”.
My work as a potter is an expression of this concept. The bodies of the clay animals I create are hollow, becoming spaces of emptiness and quiet acceptance. Clay, though enduring, allows me to capture the fleeting “tasokare” moments in everyday life, freezing them into form.
I don’t always create in my studio. I might place a figurine in the corner of my living room or kitchen, adding small touches in the pauses between chores. I carry a piece with me in my backpack, working on it periodically throughout the day. The process of shaping them is woven into the fabric of my daily life. Under morning’s blue light, the dusky twilight, or the warm glow of a lightbulb, these figures shift and change. They reflect not only the passage of time but my own evolving feelings as I mold, carve, glaze, and fire them.
What are these creatures? There’s no question that they’re animals, but what kind? Their identities are blurred and ambiguous. I’ve intentionally made them diverse in form and color—some with long noses, pointed ears, or pronounced chins. They might be black, white, spotted, or something else entirely. These animals are freer than humans, but they all share a common expression. Though they differ outwardly, they are alike in how they lose themselves in contemplation. They resonate with one another, free of distinctions or discrimination. They are also you.
Even in a world that feels chaotic and unbalanced, “tasokare” belongs to all living beings. This quiet, reflective time is something we desperately need now.
Is there a “tasokare” that mirrors you? Or perhaps a “tasokare” looking back at you, silently saying, “You are just like me.” Surely, these figures will listen to you in that same silence.
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