Minnie Evans, considered an "outsider artist," at work on her porch in Wilmington, NC.

Artist Minnie Evans is arguably one of the most visionary artists of the 20th century.

Her work has hung in the country’s finest museums and is now in N.C. Central University’s Art Museum. The exhibit, which runs until April 18, is called “The Dream World for Minnie Evans.”

The central motif in many of Evans’ paintings is the human face surrounded by curvilinear patterns made up of spiral plants, animal forms, and merging eyes.

“The paintings and colored drawings of Minnie Evans are surrealistic and reveal psychic revelations inspired by dreams where angels, demons, animals and hybrid plants appear before the all-seeing eye of God,” said Kenneth Rodgers, director of the NCCU Art Museum.

The dreams and nightmares that shaped Evans art started early in life and they had a major influence on her word.

Evans, who died in 1987 at the age of 95, referred to the night visions that haunted her as “those terrible dreams.”

The dreams were powerful and vivid. The dreams would cause Evans sleepless nights.

It wasn’t until she was 50 years old that Evans went through her first spiritual catharsis and was led to make art of her dreams.

She was led to do her first painting on Good Friday in 1935. She finished a grocery list then began to fill up the page with what many in the art world call a pure artistic revelation.

The next day she filled another page with her spiritually inspired drawings. Evans had found an lifelong outlet for her inspirations.

Evans added her childhood and work experiences to her dreams as an artistic inspiration.

“My whole life has been dreams and day dreams,” Evans once said. “No one taught me to paint. No one can teach me because no one knows what to teach me.”

Evans was born in 1890 to Joseph and Ella Kelley, farmers who lived in rural Pender County, N.C. In 1908, at 16, she married Julius Evans.

She worked as a gatekeeper at Airlie Gardens from 1948-1974, and often painted while seated seated on the inside of the Airlie Gardens gatehouse.

Art critics have noted that Evans work is often criticized for its raw, untutored look.

In fact, according to Kenneth Rogers’ discussion of her work in the exhibit’s booklet, her style is now “universally heralded today precisely because .. its crudeness is testimony of a willingness to eliminate the familiar in order to be familiar with the alien.”

An element of mystery surrounds Evans work. Her dream inspired art creativity was fueled exclusively by impulse.

Her methods and unique career place her on a list of artists that has left her labeled as misunderstood.

Evans last art exhibit was in the Research Triangle Park in 1986. Her famous portrait “Jesus Christ” traveled around the world for three years.