With the reopening of Fish City Studios in downtown Gloucester this past May, the beating heart of alternative and outsider art on the North Shore is back and thriving. Less than a year after Jon Sarkin’s passing in July 2024, his May 3rd birthday was celebrated with an event at his scrappy-but-slightly-upscale studio space. “The event was a whirlwind that exceeded expectations. 39 Main Street was packed with well over a hundred people cycling through, and the punk and garage records spun by DJ Josh Lentini were the perfect complement. I remember the night ending and thinking, we need to do this again, and again, and again,” recalls Fish City Studios business manager Mark Henderson. Henderson first started advocating for Sarkin’s work in 2005 but began working with him closely in 2020.
After complications from a neurosurgery led to a stroke in 1989, Sarkin was forced to give up his career as a chiropractor. He turned to his artwork as a therapeutic way to cope with the havoc the stroke wreaked on his nervous system. What he discovered was a new artistic voice and ability. His frenetic and visually arresting drawings and paintings mix words and images.
During his life his art was exhibited in New York, Boston, L.A., Oxford, Princeton, Liverpool, London, and Paris. His work is in the collections of The Centre Pompidou in Paris, The American Visionary Art Museum, and the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
“He never took art seriously until after his injury,” explains Henderson. “He trusted his intuition and the process completely, and he let the rest remain an enigma. He preferred to let the artwork speak for itself.”
Sarkin’s creativity was fueled by his passion for classic rock; he was a fanatic. The Rolling Stones, Dylan, and The Who were always coming from his speakers in the studio. In turn, many celebrities and notable figures became his fans and collected his work; Pete Townshend of The Who and Warren Ellis from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds acquired his work through The Henry Boxer Outsider Art Gallery. He designed an album cover for Guster’s “Easy Wonderful” album and appeared in a music video for them.
While Sarkin gained international recognition for his art, Gloucester was always where he was rooted. “Jon’s work was very much of the North Shore, not about The North Shore. Gloucester’s influence ran deep in his veins, in the attitude and energy of his art. Gloucester is a place with a long artistic heritage and a rugged, independent spirit, and Jon absolutely soaked that up,” says Henderson. “He was embraced as a staple by the community. All that said, he didn’t shy away from maritime subjects. There are hundreds of fish, sailboats, waves (both odes to Hokusai’s wave and of his own design). This type of influence is unavoidable here. You can hear the seagulls and foghorns from the studio!”
According to Henderson, interest in Sarkin’s work has exploded since the Fish City Studio reopening event. Close to home, one of Sarkin’s significant works, a large-scale 24-foot by 6-foot mural previously on view in Boston, will be moved to The Cut, an event space in Gloucester, for a fantastic public viewing opportunity. Fish City held two shows since the reopening, an intimate group show of six artists and the MARITIME 2025 exhibit, which was a reprise of the last exhibition to take place during Sarkin’s lifetime.
The studio’s visiting artist wall, “is a focused, rotating showcase for artists aligned with Fish City’s milieu: outsider/alternative, high-signal, and fearless. Recent highlights include Amy Chace (Rockport) and Patrick O’Donnell (Beverly). We’re also collaborating with Janet Knott, former Globe photojournalist, on an event this year,” says Henderson.
Studio staff is busy working on an Estate Collection of Sarkin’s work by picking the best of his work to receive the utmost archival care with the goal of making them selectively available to the highest quality exhibitions. Farther from home, Sarkin’s work will be traveling to Rotterdam, Netherlands, for an international exhibition later this year at Galerie Atelier Herenplaats. With these recent events Sarkin’s legacy has no end in sight. Henderson sums it up perfectly, “The stroke was part of his story, but it wasn’t the whole story. The art was the story.”