Retrospective Exhibition of Renowned Outsider Artist Robert Sundholm

ArtHaus is proud to announce an upcoming retrospective exhibition celebrating the life and vivid creative legacy of the late outsider artist Robert Sundholm (1941–2023). The exhibition will officially open on November 21st at the ArtHaus studio space in Hudson County.

Robert Sundholm’s story is one of the most remarkable and deeply moving narratives in contemporary American folk art. Abandoned at a Brooklyn orphanage at age seven, Sundholm overcame a lifetime of profound hardship, illiteracy until age 32, and decades of isolation. At age 60, while working as a janitor mopping floors at the North Bergen Town Hall, he picked up a paintbrush for the first time. He began taping his prolific, untrained paintings directly to the corridor walls of the town hall, where his immense raw talent was eventually discovered in 2009.

Sundholm went on to take the elite art world by storm, debuting at New York City’s prestigious Outsider Art Fair. His “brushy fly-away” style has been widely compared to European Expressionism, capturing international acclaim from the New York Times, BBC News, and People Magazine.

The upcoming ArtHaus exhibition offers an intimate look at Sundholm’s emotionally charged landscapes and solitary figures, which reflect his life’s deep longings, vulnerabilities, and eventual triumphs. Driven by a primal need to “create something beautiful” out of loneliness, his thick, textured brushstrokes and explosive use of color continue to serve as a powerful testament to the human spirit.