Apocalypse House

Nor is short for Norbert, but some call me Noah. On the Island of Bimini, in the Bermuda Triangle, many people call me Mr. Nor (that is what it sounds like). After years of sojourning there, I learned they were actually saying Mr. Noah. The Bimini accent makes Noah sound like Nor. Thus, I acquired the Biblical name, Mr. Noah. "Contemporary religious painter Norbert Kox is one of America's most important Visionary artists. His self-described 'apocalyptic visual parables' utilize powerful symbolic metaphors aiming to shake modern man from his spiritual malaise and clear away centuries worth of mistranslations of the Bible." (Richard Metzger, Disinformation: The Interviews, p. 116). "Norbert's research impales the sacred cows of contemporary Christianity with truck-sized holes. Armed with findings from his investigations, Norbert paints startling, even gruesome canvases in which one can see the influences of Matthias Grünewald, Salvador Dali, even Joe Coleman." (Adam Parfrey, Apocalypse Culture II, p. 374). "Norbert Kox lives today as a semi-hermit...But he is not alone since God (and God's stark message) is ever present in his meditative prayer, in the "Bible codes" he finds in a computerized grid of Hebrew letters, and in his lushly visionary paintings and gothic constructions. Increasingly famous and infamous now for his prophetic images that challenge mainstream religious pieties, Kox is a benign, humble, and intelligent man. Clearly at peace with himself, he does not, however, shy away from confronting us with God's apocalyptic warnings and encrypted revelations. But there are always flashes of light and spirit within the darkness - signs of hope and renewal...powerfully communicating God's most secret messages through his intensely glowing paintings (he has developed his own techniques of translucent acrylic glazing) and biblically haunted found-object assemblages. Despite the fear that his work sometimes engenders, he has had increasing national success as an artist with a provocatively disturbing vision of the end-time. Most recently, he has been retreating from the bitter Wisconsin winters to the tropical sun of Bimini, and it seems that he has tempered some of the harsh cartoon evil portrayed in many of the early paintings. But no matter how much his recent work shows an ameliorating principle, Kox quietly and passionately persists in his attempt to unveil the mysteries of God's strange missives to humankind." - Professor Norman J. Girardot (Curator, The End Is A New Beginning: Four Outsider Artists, 2000-2001, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA)