- Norbert
Kox was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1945, on the day the atomic
bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. At seventeen, he joined army, where
in his spare time he taught himself not only to paint, but also to
drink. After his stint in the service, he continued to drink heavily
while working on custom cars and motorcycles for a living. He became
a notorious member of the "Outlaws" biker gang but hit bottom
by his thirtieth birthday after a drug overdose. He swore off alcohol,
gave away most of his possessions, and joined a conservative Pentecostal
Christian group. As he studied the Scriptures, his perceptions of
Christianity changed dramatically. Kox could no longer belong to any
organized religious group; he now understood them to be the deception
of evil forces. He saw pagan religious practice at the heart of this
false representation of Christianity. For the next ten years he meditated,
painted, and lived by himself in the woods of Wisconsin, There he
built a personal chapel and a "Gospel Road" with scripture-based
messages leading through the forest. In 1985, he started studies in
religion and art at the University of Wisconsin, and has been painting
full-time ever since. The resulting art is strange and beautiful,
religious and sacrilegious, and doubly meaningful. La Luz De Jesus
is very excited to bring you the visionary paintings of Norbert Kox
and his first one-man West Coast exhibition.
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