Bio

Jon Serl (1894–1993) was an American self-taught artist who lived in extremely humble conditions for most life. Born as Josef Searls in 1894 in Olean, New York, Serl was the fifth of twelve children. He grew up in a vaudevillian theatrical family and joined the act at a very young age. As a child, he was starved by his father in order to keep him thin enough to play a woman in the family performances, which undoubtedly contributed to his early artistic talents including acting, dancing, singing and performing as a female impersonator named “Slats”. Eventually, Serl broke away from the family business to work multiple odd jobs including being a chuckwagon chef in the Pacific Northwest, a day laboring fruit harvester, a gardener, and a voiceover actor in Hollywood.

Serl’s house was dilapidated and completely isolated from the outside world. On his porch there was a painted sign reading, "CLEAN ENOUGH TO BE HEALTHY, DIRTY ENOUGH TO BE HAPPY". The artist’s paintings were piled up everywhere, scattered amongst detritus and with mice and chickens milling about. There was no television or radio, and in his own words the house was "a dump, but a nice dump”.

Jon Serl started painting during World War II when he was in San Juan Capistrano, California. He wanted to decorate his house but as he was short on cash so he started painting his own works. During this period he also worked in vaudeville, movies and as a docker. He started seriously painting in his mid fifties, and between 1945 and 1985 he created more than 1200 whimsical paintings on found boards, which traveled with him for years and depict scenes from his multifarious and troubled life. His subject matter ranged from mundane everyday objects and occurrences to the supernatural.

Exhibition History

Selected Exhibitions

2023

Death of an Outsider, SHRINE, LA

1994

Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, California

1981

Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California