Lee Smith

Monica and Dash, Original Painting

2023

This one is 2 sided with the Brooklyn Bridge on one side and Angkor Wat on the other side. (Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia. Stretching over some 400 km2, including forested area, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. They include the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations.) Tom Carapic (born 1939), full name Tomislav Sava Čarapić, is an artist who specialises in found object artwork. He also does street art. A prominent Outsider Artist he was a featured artist in the American Visionary Art Museum's End is Near Exhibit. His work was also featured in the exhibition catalog. His work has been sold at Slotin Folk Art. Carapic was born in Velisevac, Serbia (then Kingdom of Yugoslavia). He was educated at a military school in Herzegovina in the 1950s, and served as a sergeant in the Yugoslav People's Army. Afterwards he was denied a college education, possibly because he was not a member of the Communist Party, illegally crossed into Italy in 1961, and, from there, emigrated to the United States. In 1965, he began attending classes at the New York Art Students League, but dropped out soon afterwards, eventually attending the Wilfred Academy of Beauty Culture. He was unable, however, to find steady beauty parlor employment, and worked in menial labor while attending classes in Spanish Education at Manhattan Community College. Due to a problem with accreditation, he was forced to switch to classes in the field of studio art. There he experienced hallucinatory visions that explained his repeated failures to obtain a degree. In the late 1970s, Carapic began experiencing more hallucinatory visions; claiming that his degree problems were caused when "the evil marriage bureau massed the troops" against his college and proceeded with "an Air force bombardment" of the school. After receiving other visitations, he began making and showing his art. Most of his art is centered on found objects, most famously computer keyboards, especially those by IBM. Most of his art consists of these objects, marked with black Sharpie markers, and with green thumbprints and handprints along the objects. His most famous exhibit in New York City is "Big Bang Theory," a doomsday warnings painted on computer keyboards and shoes and construction debris. Bears similarity to the Art Brut movement made famous by Jean Dubuffet. He was inluded in The End is Near! an exhibit which included an unprecedented group of noted thinkers, from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Stephen Jay Gould to Reverend Howard Finster and Apocalypse culture expert ,Adam Parfrey, visionary artists brought together by curator, Roger Manley, for an amazing exhibition at the American Visionary Art Museum, the world’s largest ever mounted on the subjects of Apocalypse, Millennium, and Utopia. The End is Near! featuredwork from the following visionary artists amongst others: William Adkins Z.B. Armstrong Bill Bruley Frank Bruno Harry Leroy Brunson Tom Carapic Pierre Carbonel Howard Finster Tim Fowler Mary Mac Franklin Victor Joseph Gatto Robert Gie Patrick Gimel Hugo Hempel Oskar Herzberg Vojislav Jakic Norbert Kox Charles Keeling Lassiter...

Los Angeles street artist Gary John exploded onto the international art scene during the Art Basel Miami art fair in 2013. John’s playfully bold work quickly gained attention and he ...