Jon Sarkin
In October 1988, Jon Sarkin was a chiropractor in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, when a neurosurgical complication destroyed a significant portion of his left cerebellum. He emerged deaf in one ear, his vision permanently doubled, his balance irreparably altered — and consumed by an overwhelming, involuntary compulsion to make art.
For thirty-five years, working from his studio in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Sarkin produced an estimated twenty thousand drawings, paintings, collages, and mixed-media works. His method was stream-of-consciousness: layering ink, marker, paint, and found imagery across paper, foamboard, and disassembled vinyl record sleeves. Recurring motifs — Batman, cacti, jazz musicians, mantra-like word lists — cycle through the work with obsessive frequency. He died at his drawing table on July 19, 2024.
Sarkin has exhibited in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Oxford, Princeton, Liverpool, London, and Paris. His work is in the collections of The Centre Pompidou (Paris), The American Visionary Art Museum (Baltimore), the DeCordova Museum (Lincoln, MA), and the Cape Ann Museum (Gloucester, MA) as well as in the possession of several prominent private collections, such as those of musicians Pete Townshend and Warren Ellis.
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