JUXTAPOZ 18

Juxtapoz Vol. 5 No. 2 is a beautifully unhinged collision of outsider art, underground culture, political commentary and lowbrow surrealism, capturing the magazine during its raw early years when every issue felt like a Molotov cocktail lobbed into the fine art world. The centrepiece is “American Vision,” a massive feature on Michael Ray Charles whose confrontational paintings dissect race, advertising and American mythology with razor-wire intensity, introduced by Spike Lee. Elsewhere, “Three Museums That Don’t Suck” tears away the boredom of institutional art spaces, while Perry Farrell’s Venice Beach photo feature captures California as a sunburnt carnival of decay, creativity and strange freedom.

The issue moves fearlessly between dark humour and emotional wreckage, from the surreal worlds of Alonso Smith to the brutal graphic imagery of Aidan Hughes, whose art balances political discomfort with punk aesthetics. “Art to Die For” offers a startling look at the paintings of Jack Kevorkian, revealing an eerie and deeply human side to the infamous “Dr. Death,” while Jean-Marie Pigeon’s sculptural comic art and Phyllis Davidson’s road-worn paintings continue the magazine’s obsession with creators existing outside traditional gallery culture. Wrapped in Robert Williams’ passionate defence of underground art, the issue feels loud, confrontational and gloriously allergic to respectability.