2nd May – 29th July 2018

Pallant House Gallery, Chichester

Outside In and Pallant House Gallery have co-commissioned two artists, Greg Bromley and Laila Kassab, to produce work inspired by the Scottish Outsider Artist, Scottie Wilson.

Greg Bromley’s artwork was exhibited alongside works by Scottie Wilson drawn from the Pallant House Gallery collection from 2 May – 10 June 2018.

After a successful crowdfunding campaign, Laila Kassab’s artwork is currently on display at Pallant House Gallery from 13 June – 29 July 2018. 

Thank you to everyone who helped us raise the extra funds needed for Laila to take part in this commission and to ensure her art work could travel safely from Gaza to Pallant House Gallery.

Scottie Wilson

Scottie Wilson (1891 – 1972) started his artistic career late in life at the age of 44. His distinctive art work has been widely admired and collected, including by Jean Dubuffet and Pablo Picasso. His detailed and idiosyncratic work, created using pen, inks, crayons and watercolours, are rich with personal symbols. His works embody a sense of morality, wherein characters called ‘evils and greedies’ are juxtaposed with naturalistic forms, such as birds, fish and trees, to symbolise goodness and truth. 

Greg Bromley

Greg Bromley is an artist and social worker from Yorkshire:

“I see a great deal of similarities between my work and Scottie’s, particularly his use of eyes, animals, organic outlines and incredible detail in his compositions. I also feel a resonance with Scottie’s struggle with social interactions and his subsequent use of ‘greedies’.
 
Furthermore, I see some similarities with Scottie as a person. I too had a psychological eureka moment and realised art was my life obsession. Approximately 3 years ago, I had a bout of anxiety and depression as a consequence of 20 years of Social Work and some personality flaws. I picked up the pen and haven’t looked back.
  
For the co-commission, I will re-envision pieces of Scottie’s work that stir up emotion within me. I will keep a very similar aesthetic composition i.e. the outlines of the images and their place within the image. However, the detail will be completely different and from a mixed-media perspective. 
 
This exhibition is a cornerstone in my aspirations to earn a full-time living through my work.”

Laila Kassab

Laila Kassab is a self-taught Palestinian artist living in Gaza:

“Scottie and I share the urge to express our art in the face of a life of poverty, personal hardship and painful memories of war. Much of his imagery resembles my paintings to such an extent that I feel we are soul mates.
 
In my opinion, the birds in his work may symbolise the loss of freedom. On the other hand, the fish, which are unable to live outside water, may symbolise the many people who are forced to live in an environment, customs and traditions that kill their soul.

This exhibition marks the first year of the biennial Outside In and Pallant House Gallery co-commission. 

The co-commission is funded by The John Booth Charitable Foundation.