‍ Karl A. McIntosh is a Jamaican-born Brooklyn artist who creates original mixed collages, found object artwork, and sculptural masks from reclaimed materials.Born in Kingston, Jamaica, McIntosh moved to the United States at an early age and later took up art.

Among his mentors are artist Otto Neals, with whom he worked at the Bob Blackburn printmaking workshop, and artist Marian Griffin. McIntosh is also a poet, drummer, and dancer who draws his creative inspiration from his study of African art and culture. His bold, bright colors dance off the page and tantalize the senses his work is profound in its statement and often deliciously whimsical.

What appears at first as a chaotic arrangement of variegated color swatches reveals, on closer inspection, a complex structure and sophisticated placement fabricated from magazine clippings and strips of wood, pieced together into intricate works of art. His work is an honest portrayal of everyday life and the people who live it, but on occasion takes on public figures and world events, often employing satire as thick as the layers of paint or paper he uses to depict them.

Some call McIntosh a folk artist. Others call him primitive, or say he's outside the mainstream. He allows the viewer to draw from his work what they need. McIntosh lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

“I get much of my inspiration from my ancestors and the study of West African culture. My association with other artists that frequented The Dorsey Art Gallery has greatly helped me in my desire to be an artist.”

— Artist's Statement

Among the artists he credits from those years at Dorsey's: Leroy Clarke, James Denmark, Ernie Crichlow, Tom Feelings, James Brown, Marion Griffin, and a host of others.