Story of Robert Sundholm, the 75-Year-Old North Bergen Janitor: “I Became Something from Nothin

Orphan. Survivor. Janitor. Painter. Robert Sundholm’s path to New York City’s Outsider Art Fair, the world’s premiere showcase for self-taught artists with no formal training, is unusual in just about every way.

The 75-year-old who mopped floors for 13 years at the North Bergen Town Hall in New Jersey has never had an art lesson nor been to a museum. His selection in the esteemed show which opens next week at the Metropolitan Pavilion is, he says, “something I never expected.”

“Sundholm is an exciting new discovery,” says the show’s director Becca Hoffman. “The raw innocence of his brushwork exemplifies the spirit of artists that break out at the Outsider Art Fair.”