Folk Artist Mr. Imagination, aka Gregory Warmack, 1948-2012
Gregory Warmack, better known to a generation of art lovers as Mr. Imagination, one of the few outsiders artists whose work was collected by the Smithsonian and reproduced in many standard art history texts, died on May 30 in Atlanta of complications from a blood infection. Obsessive and accessible, Warmack’s signature bottle-cap encrusted, spiritually motivated objects came to symbolize the burgeoning genre of outsider art as it began to be seriously collected, codified and appreciated in the 1980′s and 90′s, making him a star, and leading to commissions for Coca-Cola, Reagan National Airport and Disney World.
Born in Chicago, Warmack experienced and artistic awakening after recovering from a near-fatal gunshot wound in 1970. The self-taught artist moved his studio to Bethlehem, PA in 2001, and to Atlanta in 2009 after a disastrous studio fire.
also by Bill Davenport
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