This remarkable exhibition brings together original works by two of the South's most compelling self-taught artists: Howard Finster (1916-2001) and Harry Underwood (1969-present). Both artists share a profound commitment to integrating text and image, creating works that function as both visual art and written testimony about the human experience.
Finster, the self-proclaimed "stranger from another world," spent his final decades creating over 50,000 numbered works as part of his divine mission to communicate through art. His paintings are colorful and detailed, using flat picture planes covered with words and theological reflections that invite viewers into his visionary world.
Underwood first encountered Finster's work through his famous Johnny Carson appearance, later seeing the paintings in person around 2000. Inspired by Finster's use of plywood as a canvas, Underwood began creating his own works on wood panels, using house paint and No. 2 pencils. His subjects blend realism, surrealism, and pop art, reflecting influences from Paul Gauguin to Salvador Dalí, Federico Fellini to Kurt Vonnegut.
Raised among "religious people, preachers, bigots, eccentrics," Underwood's work explores faith and humanity through a deeply personal lens, noting that "I don't think God can be understood within a group nowadays."
Together, their works represent a continuum of Southern outsider art that bridges the sacred and secular, the visionary and the everyday.
Fittingly, this exhibition opens at The Sun ATL, located in the heart of Sweet Auburn between three historic Baptist churches - Ebenezer, Wheat Street, and Liberty - creating a triangle of faith that seems to bless this gathering of belief-driven art. The exhibition proves that the most powerful art often comes from the most unexpected places, and sometimes the greatest act of faith is simply the courage to create.
