Daniel Johnston is an artist and musician, who has inspired hundreds of artists all over the world. Among his fans you can count Tom Waits, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Beck and David Bowie. Before his concert in Vicar Street on April 3rd he is presenting over forty of his drawings alongside early tape covers and rare 7” record sleeves.

Visual art was Johnston’s initial mode of expression and the exhibition will show drawings from 1981 to 2006. His visual art presents us with an evolving mythological universe made up of characters from his childhood passion for superheroes, Godzilla, King Kong and Bible stories. Life is presented as a spinning continuum of evolution, from innocence to experience, corruption, evil, death and eventual redemption on the spiritual plane. Good is constantly threatened by evil in the form of monsters, dinosaurs and superheroes.

The drawings include a cast of recurring characters in these complex evolutionary relationships, ranging from Jeremiah the Frog representing pure innocence to the Vile
Corrupt and Satan as pure evil. It shows a world in which there are battles between good and evil, with a pathos, simplicity and undeniable humour.

The exhibition aims to highlight these recurring themes, characters and belief systems within his work, in a career that spans over twenty years.