Norbert Kox
Norbert Kox
, United States
About Norbert Kox
2015 BIOGRAPHY:
NORBERT H. KOX was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, August 6, 1945, just nine hours after the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. He sees this ushering in of his birth by an atomic explosion as an important omen in the foreshadowing of his apocalyptic art ministry.
Norbert Kox is a practicing professional artist and past Sculpture and Painting Instructor at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and also has taught his techniques of luminous painting at UWGB Summer Art Studios, for 15 years. He has developed his own techniques of translucent acrylic glazing to produce the same intensely glowing effects and illusionary dimensional space that he achieves with oils. His style and technique have become an unmistakable trademark distinguishing his works from any others.
He refers to his visual work as Apocalyptic Visual Parables, in the genre of Apocalyptic Surrealism. The pieces are bathed with symbols and metaphors, and are colorfully painted with realistic shading and highlighting. Some are more abstract while others are more figurative. Most are very surreal and many of these works contain his own poetry and writings, along with Bible verses and Bible Codes (the "Torah Code") written within the work for reference. Kox's intent is to excite and encourage the viewer to begin his or her own research into spiritual and religious matters rather than trusting handed down traditions. Some of the paintings expose idolatry and hypocrisy as sins of organized religion.
"Contemporary religious painter Norbert Kox is one of America's most important Visionary artists. His self-described 'apocalyptic visual parables' utilize powerful symbolic metaphors aiming to shake modern man from his spiritual malaise and clear away centuries worth of mistranslations of the Bible." (Richard Metzger, Disinformation: The Interviews, p. 116).
His 1999 Neville Museum exhibit, To Hell and Back, received national media coverage, and remained in the news for 3.5 months, including many television broadcasts and several radio talk shows. It was also protested by the New York Catholic Defense League, and was picketed by local fanatics.
Norbert Kox artwork has been represented in the New York Outsider Art Fair for more than fifteen years by various galleries: Ann Nathan, Chicago; Dean Jensen, Milwaukee; Judy Saslow, Chicago; Henry Boxer, London; Galerie Toxic (Armand Hein) Luxembourg.
Kox's works have been in shows and galleries from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States, and in The Bahamas, England, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Australia, Samoa, India, and South Africa.
Museum Collections:
Maison la Rouge, Paris, France.
The Museum Of Everything, London, England.
American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL.
Neville Museum, Green Bay, WI.
Wisconsin Museum of Art, West Bend, WI.
Private Collections: in the United States, Bahamas, England, France, Luxembourg, Australia, and South Africa.
NORBERT H. KOX was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, August 6, 1945, just nine hours after the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. He sees this ushering in of his birth by an atomic explosion as an important omen in the foreshadowing of his apocalyptic art ministry.
Norbert Kox is a practicing professional artist and past Sculpture and Painting Instructor at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and also has taught his techniques of luminous painting at UWGB Summer Art Studios, for 15 years. He has developed his own techniques of translucent acrylic glazing to produce the same intensely glowing effects and illusionary dimensional space that he achieves with oils. His style and technique have become an unmistakable trademark distinguishing his works from any others.
He refers to his visual work as Apocalyptic Visual Parables, in the genre of Apocalyptic Surrealism. The pieces are bathed with symbols and metaphors, and are colorfully painted with realistic shading and highlighting. Some are more abstract while others are more figurative. Most are very surreal and many of these works contain his own poetry and writings, along with Bible verses and Bible Codes (the "Torah Code") written within the work for reference. Kox's intent is to excite and encourage the viewer to begin his or her own research into spiritual and religious matters rather than trusting handed down traditions. Some of the paintings expose idolatry and hypocrisy as sins of organized religion.
"Contemporary religious painter Norbert Kox is one of America's most important Visionary artists. His self-described 'apocalyptic visual parables' utilize powerful symbolic metaphors aiming to shake modern man from his spiritual malaise and clear away centuries worth of mistranslations of the Bible." (Richard Metzger, Disinformation: The Interviews, p. 116).
His 1999 Neville Museum exhibit, To Hell and Back, received national media coverage, and remained in the news for 3.5 months, including many television broadcasts and several radio talk shows. It was also protested by the New York Catholic Defense League, and was picketed by local fanatics.
Norbert Kox artwork has been represented in the New York Outsider Art Fair for more than fifteen years by various galleries: Ann Nathan, Chicago; Dean Jensen, Milwaukee; Judy Saslow, Chicago; Henry Boxer, London; Galerie Toxic (Armand Hein) Luxembourg.
Kox's works have been in shows and galleries from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States, and in The Bahamas, England, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Australia, Samoa, India, and South Africa.
Museum Collections:
Maison la Rouge, Paris, France.
The Museum Of Everything, London, England.
American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL.
Neville Museum, Green Bay, WI.
Wisconsin Museum of Art, West Bend, WI.
Private Collections: in the United States, Bahamas, England, France, Luxembourg, Australia, and South Africa.
Education
NORBERT H. KOX, 2015 ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a self-taught visionary artist working in the category of Apocalyptic Surrealism. The works reveal things not only to my viewers but also to me. My art has taken me on a forty-year journey of self awareness and spiritual growth.
I've been painting since 1963, when I taught myself to use oils. Today much of my work is done in acrylics, sometimes over-glazed with oils. I rediscovered the glazing techniques of the old masters while working on my first crucifixion painting in 1976. Today my artwork consists of painting, sculpture, photography, and video, but my paintings have received the most recognition and interest.
My art is influenced by the study of Biblical Scripture, metaphysics, quantum physics, science and history, as well as personal experience and revelation. These areas of reference merge in the psyche and materialize as visionary artworks. My first major painting, Blood Offering: Yesu Christ the Sacrificial Lamb, was the direct result of a vision in 1976.
Some of my paintings come to me directly in visions, but others are progressive and dynamic, in a sense living visions, developing within themselves; that is, they start with an initial vision and proceed to grow with many hours of intermittent prayer and meditation. If a painting were to be rushed it would lack critical features. It is necessary that they develop slowly to incorporate all of the multilevels and intricacies that make the work what it is. Without this interaction of the holy spirit these paintings could not exist.
A painting may develop in a few weeks or it may be several months and in some cases even a number of years. When a painting has to wait it is because God wants something in it that is not yet in my mental information base, something I have to see, or learn, or experience, a crucial element that would be missing if I did not wait.
God inspires me to start a painting knowing that I do not have what it takes to finish it, because he still has something to teach me and uses the painting to get me into position to receive that which he desires to reveal through the work.
Sometimes he is waiting for something to come my way, or for me to go to a certain place and suddenly discover what it is that he wants to say. If I'm just not getting it he may send someone out of the blue to say something to me or to show me something that is then confirmed in the holy spirit. That is a great moment of enlightenment when comes the realization that I've been visited by an angel/messenger of God. It might be some random person that casually crossed my path or it could be someone I've known all of my life; it may be a saint or it may be a sinner, God uses whome he choses. The person fit for the task is the one he inspires. Normally that person does not realize that he or she is being led by God at that precise moment to play a very important part in his master plan.
In 1975, a very powerful and personal spiritual experience had changed my life and my art. It gave me a new purpose, to warn of the pitfalls that had led me to the brink of destruction, and to point out the alternatives that give new hope and direction to the interested viewer.
Most of my work from 1988 to 1998, was of a dark nature heavily exposing pitfalls in modern religion and society, with only tiny glimpses of light and hope. After 1998, greatly influenced by annual trips to the Island of Bimini, many of the works took on a lighter look, that I call the glory and energy paintings. The works I'm doing now are mostly of the light and energy of God as manifested and transferred from the spirit realm into the physical and material realm. An excitement and hope has been instilled within me, based on the Scriptural understanding of energy as related to the Universe and God.
The intent of my current artwork is to create within the viewer the same excitement that I feel toward investigation and discovery of the wondrous things within our reach, both natural and supernatural.
I am a self-taught visionary artist working in the category of Apocalyptic Surrealism. The works reveal things not only to my viewers but also to me. My art has taken me on a forty-year journey of self awareness and spiritual growth.
I've been painting since 1963, when I taught myself to use oils. Today much of my work is done in acrylics, sometimes over-glazed with oils. I rediscovered the glazing techniques of the old masters while working on my first crucifixion painting in 1976. Today my artwork consists of painting, sculpture, photography, and video, but my paintings have received the most recognition and interest.
My art is influenced by the study of Biblical Scripture, metaphysics, quantum physics, science and history, as well as personal experience and revelation. These areas of reference merge in the psyche and materialize as visionary artworks. My first major painting, Blood Offering: Yesu Christ the Sacrificial Lamb, was the direct result of a vision in 1976.
Some of my paintings come to me directly in visions, but others are progressive and dynamic, in a sense living visions, developing within themselves; that is, they start with an initial vision and proceed to grow with many hours of intermittent prayer and meditation. If a painting were to be rushed it would lack critical features. It is necessary that they develop slowly to incorporate all of the multilevels and intricacies that make the work what it is. Without this interaction of the holy spirit these paintings could not exist.
A painting may develop in a few weeks or it may be several months and in some cases even a number of years. When a painting has to wait it is because God wants something in it that is not yet in my mental information base, something I have to see, or learn, or experience, a crucial element that would be missing if I did not wait.
God inspires me to start a painting knowing that I do not have what it takes to finish it, because he still has something to teach me and uses the painting to get me into position to receive that which he desires to reveal through the work.
Sometimes he is waiting for something to come my way, or for me to go to a certain place and suddenly discover what it is that he wants to say. If I'm just not getting it he may send someone out of the blue to say something to me or to show me something that is then confirmed in the holy spirit. That is a great moment of enlightenment when comes the realization that I've been visited by an angel/messenger of God. It might be some random person that casually crossed my path or it could be someone I've known all of my life; it may be a saint or it may be a sinner, God uses whome he choses. The person fit for the task is the one he inspires. Normally that person does not realize that he or she is being led by God at that precise moment to play a very important part in his master plan.
In 1975, a very powerful and personal spiritual experience had changed my life and my art. It gave me a new purpose, to warn of the pitfalls that had led me to the brink of destruction, and to point out the alternatives that give new hope and direction to the interested viewer.
Most of my work from 1988 to 1998, was of a dark nature heavily exposing pitfalls in modern religion and society, with only tiny glimpses of light and hope. After 1998, greatly influenced by annual trips to the Island of Bimini, many of the works took on a lighter look, that I call the glory and energy paintings. The works I'm doing now are mostly of the light and energy of God as manifested and transferred from the spirit realm into the physical and material realm. An excitement and hope has been instilled within me, based on the Scriptural understanding of energy as related to the Universe and God.
The intent of my current artwork is to create within the viewer the same excitement that I feel toward investigation and discovery of the wondrous things within our reach, both natural and supernatural.
Events
Awards:
2012, Kox received the Wisconsin Visual Artist Lifetime Achievement Award. http://wvaaa.com/inductee/norbert-kox-87
2009, Awarded by the Bahamian Government Ministry of Tourism for his promotion of Bimini through his art. http://inmyrighthand.homestead.com/2009showAward.html
1999 Kox was recognized as one of The 100 Most Interesting People of The 20th Century in Northeastern Wisconsin. (Green Bay Press-Gazaette, Friday December 31, 1999. Special Millennium Edition, THE COLLECTABLES OF THE CENTURY.) http://mrgeoswebpage.homestead.com/Norbert-H-Kox-Artist-and-Author.html
2012, Kox received the Wisconsin Visual Artist Lifetime Achievement Award. http://wvaaa.com/inductee/norbert-kox-87
2009, Awarded by the Bahamian Government Ministry of Tourism for his promotion of Bimini through his art. http://inmyrighthand.homestead.com/2009showAward.html
1999 Kox was recognized as one of The 100 Most Interesting People of The 20th Century in Northeastern Wisconsin. (Green Bay Press-Gazaette, Friday December 31, 1999. Special Millennium Edition, THE COLLECTABLES OF THE CENTURY.) http://mrgeoswebpage.homestead.com/Norbert-H-Kox-Artist-and-Author.html
Exhibitions
Norbert H. Kox, Global Exhibition Record (2015-2012 partial. See 2013-1996 at http://nkox.homestead.com/resume.html, earlier entries upon request)
2015, The Call, 8th Annual, Norbert H. Kox and James Pinder Art Exhibition (two-person show) Ministry Of Education, Bimini, Bahamas
2015, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities: 30 Years at Cavin-Morris (group exhibition) Cavin-Morris Gallery, 210 11th Ave, rm 201, New York, NY
2014-2015, Enigmas Rapt in Mysteries: American Art Without Epoch (group exhibition) Cavin-Morris Gallery, 210 11th Ave, rm 201, New York, NY
2014, Apocalyptic Surrealism (exhibition and gallery talk) Tiapapata Art Centre Inc, Tiapapata, Western Samoa (Upolu Island)
2014, The Visionary Experience: Saint Francis to Finster (group invitational) American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
2014, KIAF/14: The 13th Korea International Art Fair, Norbert H. Kox, Daniel Marten Diaz, Johan Muyle, Huston Ripley, Won Sou-Yeol (Galerie TOXIC) COEX Trade Center, Seoul, Korea
2014, Art Education Teacher Trainees Preview Exhibition for 2014 SIDS; Exhibit Introduces U.S. Artist in Residence Norbert H. Kox (with paintings created in Samoa) Faculty of Education, National University of Samoa, Apia, Western Samoa (Upolu Island)
2014, Outsider Art Fair: Paris, Hotel Le A, Paris (Chambre 203), Paris, France (Galerie TOXIC)
2014, Norbert H. Kox and David Tibet (two-person show) Galerie Toxic, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
2014, Outsider Art Fair: New York (Galerie TOXIC) Manhattan, New York
2014, Art Paris (Galerie TOXIC) Grand Palais, Paris, France
2014, Miniature Fine Art Show (group invitational) Paint Box Gallery, Ephraim, WI
2014, Sound the Shofar, 7th Annual, Norbert H. Kox and James Pinder Art Exhibition (two-person show) Ministry Of Education, Bimini, Bahamas
2013-2014 (September 18, 2013 until August 22, 2014), Celebrating 25 Years of Raw Vision (group invitational) The Museum Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France
2013, Un Monde À Part (group show) Galerie TOXIC, Luxembourg, Luxembourg (Showing five large South African paintings by Kox)
2013, Outsider Art Fair: Paris, Hotel Le A, Paris, France (Galerie TOXIC)
2013, Wild West (group invitational) Sacred Machine Museum, Tucson, AZ
2013, Calvinia Art Exhibition (group show) Dorpshuis (Deon & Adene Vlok), Calvinia, Northern Cape, South Africa.
2013, End-Time Biblical Paintings (solo) Volle Evangelie Kerk, Upington, Northern Cape, South Africa.
2013, 4th Annual Santa Muerte (group invitational) Sacred Machine Museum, Tucson, AZ
2013, Miniature Fine Art Show (group invitational) Paint Box Gallery, Ephraim, WI
2013, BEYOND THE SACRED MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL, Sacred Machine’s Third Anniversary Event (group invitational) Sacred Machine Museum, Tucson, AZ
2013, Arise, 6th Annual, Norbert H. Kox and James Pinder Art Exhibition (two-person show) Ministry Of Education, Bimini, Bahamas
2013, LALUZAPALOOZA: EVERYTHING BUT THE KITSCHEN SYNC, Year XXVII of the Greatest Group Show on Earth (juried) La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013, Thirteen (An Exhibition About Superstitions; group invitational) Sacred Machine Museum, Tucson, AZ
2013, Norbert H. Kox and Joseph Kurhajec (two-person show) Galerie Toxic, Luxembourg
2013, HEY! MODERN ART & POP CULTURE / PART II (group invitational) The Museum Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France
2012, This is the End My Friend: Visions of Post Apocalyptic Worlds (group invitational) Crossman Gallery, UW-Whitewater, Whitewater, WI
2012, How to Read a Book: an artists' books reading room (group invitational) Lawton Art Gallery, UW-Green Bay, Green Bay, WI
2012, Babylon 2012 (collaborative works of Norbert H. Kox and William Thomas Thompson) Lawton Art Gallery, UWGB, Green Bay, WI
2012, 68th Art Annual (juried) Neville Museum, Green Bay, Wisconsin
2012, Treadwell Stagecoach Run Arts Festival, Anna Sea Studio, Freer Hollow Road, Walton, New York
2012, HEAVEN and HELL (group invitational) The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and the Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois
2012, LALUZAPALOOZA: EVERYTHING BUT THE KITSCHEN SYNC, Vol. XV, Year
2015, The Call, 8th Annual, Norbert H. Kox and James Pinder Art Exhibition (two-person show) Ministry Of Education, Bimini, Bahamas
2015, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities: 30 Years at Cavin-Morris (group exhibition) Cavin-Morris Gallery, 210 11th Ave, rm 201, New York, NY
2014-2015, Enigmas Rapt in Mysteries: American Art Without Epoch (group exhibition) Cavin-Morris Gallery, 210 11th Ave, rm 201, New York, NY
2014, Apocalyptic Surrealism (exhibition and gallery talk) Tiapapata Art Centre Inc, Tiapapata, Western Samoa (Upolu Island)
2014, The Visionary Experience: Saint Francis to Finster (group invitational) American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
2014, KIAF/14: The 13th Korea International Art Fair, Norbert H. Kox, Daniel Marten Diaz, Johan Muyle, Huston Ripley, Won Sou-Yeol (Galerie TOXIC) COEX Trade Center, Seoul, Korea
2014, Art Education Teacher Trainees Preview Exhibition for 2014 SIDS; Exhibit Introduces U.S. Artist in Residence Norbert H. Kox (with paintings created in Samoa) Faculty of Education, National University of Samoa, Apia, Western Samoa (Upolu Island)
2014, Outsider Art Fair: Paris, Hotel Le A, Paris (Chambre 203), Paris, France (Galerie TOXIC)
2014, Norbert H. Kox and David Tibet (two-person show) Galerie Toxic, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
2014, Outsider Art Fair: New York (Galerie TOXIC) Manhattan, New York
2014, Art Paris (Galerie TOXIC) Grand Palais, Paris, France
2014, Miniature Fine Art Show (group invitational) Paint Box Gallery, Ephraim, WI
2014, Sound the Shofar, 7th Annual, Norbert H. Kox and James Pinder Art Exhibition (two-person show) Ministry Of Education, Bimini, Bahamas
2013-2014 (September 18, 2013 until August 22, 2014), Celebrating 25 Years of Raw Vision (group invitational) The Museum Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France
2013, Un Monde À Part (group show) Galerie TOXIC, Luxembourg, Luxembourg (Showing five large South African paintings by Kox)
2013, Outsider Art Fair: Paris, Hotel Le A, Paris, France (Galerie TOXIC)
2013, Wild West (group invitational) Sacred Machine Museum, Tucson, AZ
2013, Calvinia Art Exhibition (group show) Dorpshuis (Deon & Adene Vlok), Calvinia, Northern Cape, South Africa.
2013, End-Time Biblical Paintings (solo) Volle Evangelie Kerk, Upington, Northern Cape, South Africa.
2013, 4th Annual Santa Muerte (group invitational) Sacred Machine Museum, Tucson, AZ
2013, Miniature Fine Art Show (group invitational) Paint Box Gallery, Ephraim, WI
2013, BEYOND THE SACRED MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL, Sacred Machine’s Third Anniversary Event (group invitational) Sacred Machine Museum, Tucson, AZ
2013, Arise, 6th Annual, Norbert H. Kox and James Pinder Art Exhibition (two-person show) Ministry Of Education, Bimini, Bahamas
2013, LALUZAPALOOZA: EVERYTHING BUT THE KITSCHEN SYNC, Year XXVII of the Greatest Group Show on Earth (juried) La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013, Thirteen (An Exhibition About Superstitions; group invitational) Sacred Machine Museum, Tucson, AZ
2013, Norbert H. Kox and Joseph Kurhajec (two-person show) Galerie Toxic, Luxembourg
2013, HEY! MODERN ART & POP CULTURE / PART II (group invitational) The Museum Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France
2012, This is the End My Friend: Visions of Post Apocalyptic Worlds (group invitational) Crossman Gallery, UW-Whitewater, Whitewater, WI
2012, How to Read a Book: an artists' books reading room (group invitational) Lawton Art Gallery, UW-Green Bay, Green Bay, WI
2012, Babylon 2012 (collaborative works of Norbert H. Kox and William Thomas Thompson) Lawton Art Gallery, UWGB, Green Bay, WI
2012, 68th Art Annual (juried) Neville Museum, Green Bay, Wisconsin
2012, Treadwell Stagecoach Run Arts Festival, Anna Sea Studio, Freer Hollow Road, Walton, New York
2012, HEAVEN and HELL (group invitational) The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and the Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois
2012, LALUZAPALOOZA: EVERYTHING BUT THE KITSCHEN SYNC, Vol. XV, Year