Jim Cummins I Braineater painter, musician, poet, thief

[Georgia Straight, May 5-12 1977, Bill Shirk]
"he is also a painter of densely disturbing, vaguely amusing pictures, and a sculptor of strange, human-type shapes that mock and employ you to take stock of your own imagination"

. . . more than 30 art exhibits and over 100 gigs in Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle, Montreal, and Amsterdam over the last 20 years . . .

[Toronto Star, January 31 1986, Christopher Hume]
"he came to town [Toronto] and stole the show at the opening of Heatwave, the exhibition at the Harborfront Art Gallery"
"Braineater really got rolling. People gathered, paint flew, a star was born."
"Braineater is fascinating . . . for the way he has adapted the techniques, economics, and spirit of rock to the art world."



[North Island Advertiser, February 9 1984]
"In the Vancouver Sun's Today magazine he was dubbed one of Canada's ten most promising young artists."


[Nite Moves, March 1987]
"Vancouver's most visible artist is I Braineater."
"I Braineater's success can somewhat be understood by the way he interprets life. He is not ashamed to "show a bit of belly"

[Toronto Star, January 24 1986, Christopher Hume]
"I try to break as many rules as possible" -Jim Cummins
"Certainly, there is something outlaw about this young man from Vancouver but nothing that might be seen as threatening or offensive."
"Each of [his] works is labeled with names, phrases, or statements which are diverse in their brutal humour and ironic sensuality. [He is a] witty, ambiguous commentator on popular culture."


[Vanguard, Summer 1982, Scott Watson] In [Jim Cummins'] work there is clearly a great deal of conviction and it is with a certain pride that I can note that [he is a] much better [painter] than any of the German or New York neo-expressionists now glutting the market, if not the mind of contemporary art.

[Georgia Straight 1986-87?]
"Its quite hard to explain just what the Braineaters do, besides working and playing very hard, but visually their art is a bizzare melange of science fiction and sword and sorcery, flavoured with punk mythology."


[Westcoast Music, Dense Milt, March 1981]
"Jim's art show was a definite event . . . and their [Braineaters'] new record Planet X is simply the best thing to emerge from Vancouver, musically, conceptually, and in its packaging. this record is the best buy on earth."

Steve Turner's label Super Electro Records recently pressed "a reissue of the first 7-inch from Vancouver's art legend, Jim Cummins. His records were really cool, arty punk..."

[Vancouver Sun, January 14, 1975, Rhody Lake]
"Visiting Jim Cummins in his Langley studio is like buying a ticket on a dream. You take his hand and go through the gauze curtain of fantasy into a world of gnomes and goblins and wizards and fairies."
"There is something clean and sparkling about his raggedness - like a bright and tattered child."

[discotext, Sarah Chesterman, August 1990]
"these [works] . . . will justify Cummins' status as an artist worthy of international reputation. Cummins is one local artist who has found his voice."

"his colourful cartoony figures that are both foreign and familiar-feeling at the same time and seem formed out of Plasticene; weird and wonderful sculptures; chalky black-and white monster paintings of rock stars drawn from some Double Dragon video game; the Braineater stuff. Strange, enigmatic. . . like Cummin's mind."

he has singles on the CDs Last Call, Karmadillo, and the soundtrack for the movie Terminal City Ricochet

	creator of the popular "blockhead" character that shows up on everything from t-shirts to clocks to album covers

[Globe and Mail, John Bentley Mays, July 7, 1984]
one brat genius - I, Braineater


[The Art Gallery at Harbourfront, Spring 1986]
"I, Braineater, the post-industrial enfant terrible of Vancouver bohemia."

designer of album covers for several bands, including The Pointed Sticks - Skinny Puppy - Itch - Pure - Dog Eat Dog

[Vancouver: Art and Artists 1931-1983]
"They pose the question of survival in terms so monstrously heavy-handed that precipitates into a genre of black humour conveying adolescent fantasies of punk tribalism, narcissism, apocalypse and barbaric libido. Significantly though, it is pure style, a burlesque of conviction projected with a feverish intensity that simultaneously repels and captivates."
-Ian Wallace (p 376)

BUY BRAINEATER ART HERE $$

VISIT BRAINEATER GALLERY HERE !?

his music videos show up on MUCHMUSIC and Bravo!

. . . re-inventing himself as a solo performer, incorporating his art as an integral part of his stage performance . . .

[Province, Dec. 29, 1995]
"Jim Cummins . . . sees the future in terms of a "world stage" opened up by interactive technologies and the Internet."

[Globe and Mail, April 20 1985, Stephen Godfrey]
"One of the reasons he's never associated himself with a commercial gallery - despite plenty of offers - is that he doesn't give a damn about the rest of the art world."
-Art Perry, Province art critic


[The Province, August 16 1991]
"Jim Cummins is one of [Vancouver's] most inventive talents. . . Here's an artist who has never been part of the careerist art crowd that studies the international art mags like handbooks to fame."

"It's only when you hit a nerve that you know you're on the right track."
-Jim Cummins