Janet Sobel immigrated from Ukraine to New York in 1908 and began painting in 1937, at age  43, experimenting with mixed materials and drip painting. From 1943 through 1946, Sobel  became a powerful presence in the New York art world, exhibiting at the Puma Gallery and at Peggy  Guggenheim’s “Art of This Century,” where her recurring method of applying ‘drip’ would later  be acknowledged as the beginnings of her transcendence from primitivism through Surrealism to  Abstract Expressionism. 

Elisabetta Zangrandi is a self-taught painter living in Verona, Italy. From a young age she has painted  on any surface available to her – rocks, bottles, wood, plants. Inspired by her love of nature and the  sweeping landscape visible from her home, her pictures are colorful worlds of fantasy, often involving  princesses and fantastical creatures. Although dissociated from the professional art world, she has  long admired the work of Italian Renaissance masters and French Impressionists. James Barron Art  has exhibited her work at the Outsider Art Fair in New York and Paris, the ADAA Art Show, the  Dallas Art Fair, and in our gallery in South Kent, Connecticut. 

Living and working in Genoa, Italy, Vera Girivi is a self-trained painter and mother of two. She began  painting seriously within the past five years. Her work depicts women, often in intricately patterned  interiors, who do not minimize or hide their flaws, but rather rejoice in their authenticity.  

Although mostly detached from the professional art world, she has acknowledged Picasso,  Cezanne, Monet, Chagall, Modigliani and Matisse as influences. Girivi paints under a pseudonym:  ‘GI’ for Giovanna, her daughter, ‘RI’ for Riccardo, her son, and ‘VI’ for Vittorio, her husband.  Under this name, Girivi can be bold in her painting. She gained a tremendous following for her work  on Instagram, which grew exponentially when Jerry Saltz highlighted her work.  

Since then, James Barron Art has exhibited her work at the Outsider Art Fair in New York and  Paris, the ADAA Art Show, the Dallas Art Fair, and in our gallery in South Kent, Connecticut. We will  present a solo exhibition of Girivi’s work at Marfa Invitational in May 2022. We are proud to have  placed her work in important private museums and foundations in the United States, Italy, and  Germany. Her work continues to touch collectors throughout the world, from Australia to Los  Angeles; New York, Vermont, Milan, and beyond