sakamoto 
I first encountered the work of Rev. Johnny Ace in a small Florida town at a gallery specialising in outsider art. I was fascinated by his surrealistic pop collages, and bought some of them. The piece on display is one of several I later found for sale online. Little is known about the Reverend Ace, except he was born in east Texas in the early 1930s and has lived long periods on the road since getting into trouble as a boy. He has served several stints in prison, once in Oklahoma for theft, and appears to have moved to St Louis in 1954, where he sat in with bands as a pick-up musician. As a painter, he is said to have created the artwork for Duane Eddy’s first album. In the 1970s he began creating collage art, which he calls ‘boards,’ as he continued his travels around the South.