From 19 – 22 October 2017, eclectic work by talented, unknown and untrained artists descended on Paris from all over the globe for the latest instalment of the Paris Outsider Art Fair. I was lucky enough to be able to hop on the Eurostar and head over to Paris for a couple of days to check out this year’s offering. In between squeezing as much of Paris into one day as might be physically possible (breakfast in Montmartre, the Montmartre Museum, the Tuileries, the Louvre – just the building, Notre Dame Cathedral), I managed to enjoy the opening night, or vernissage, as well as a quick second (much quieter) visit on the Friday evening.
This year, as in others, the variety of work on display at the Fair was truly astounding; work by figural outsider artists (Henry Darger, Willem van Genk), to artists who are completely unknown – but equally as talented. There were familiar faces from fairs past – the Cavin-Morris Gallery, Creative Growth Art Center, and the Andrew Edlin Gallery, as well as some fresh faces. I thought the best way to share my experience of this year’s Fair with you is through the photographs I took.
In this blog, writer Nick Moss reviews two Mayfair exhibitions showcasing work by artists who could be considered ‘outside of the mainstream.’ In the post, he contemplates the implications of these displays and considers what we can learn from their curation and interpretation.
Two current Mayfair exhibitions appear to suggest that the Chinese wall between outsider art and the mainstream art world is beginning to crumble. We should perhaps then bear in mind that a Chinese wall is intended to protect the interests of both parties. Is what Jean Dubuffet characterised as a world of ‘competition, acclaim and social promotion’ the most suitable environment for encounters with art which is the antithesis of these? We can contend that what the art world hides behind its side of the wall is its exposure as an industry based on the commodification of artistic singularity, but we ought to consider whether preserving a space outside this might be a necessary strategy to maintain artistic autonomy at a distance from what Dubuffet called the art world’s ‘fallacious parade.’ Or can art produced ‘intuitively’ survive its incarnation in a mainstream gallery setting?
Ida Applebroog: Mercy Hospital
Ida Applebroog, Mercy Hospital (courtesy of Hauser & Wirth)
Hauser and Wirth (23 Savile Row London W1S 2ET) are showing Ida Applebroog’s Mercy Hospital drawings. In 1969, Applebroog was struggling with her mental health and chose to withdraw from day-to-day engagement with the world – the drawings helped negotiate her return. The Courtauld’s Jo Applin comments in the press release, “The Mercy Hospital drawings allowed her to draw herself back to life, back to herself, leading from catastrophic breakdown to a creative, personal and political breakthrough.” The work stands then as a record of psychological crisis, and is described as belonging “to the long history of art created at a moment of ‘breakdown’, a period very often linked with creative ‘breakthrough’.” While it is clear that the work does reflect a time of personal trauma, there is a danger that we are encouraged, as so often, to see the work solely in relation to this, and outside any aesthetic frame of reference – as if the art is no more than a crude clue to the artist’s psyche.
Ida Applebroog, Mercy Hospital (courtesy of Hauser & Wirth)
The Mercy Hospital drawings make use of a range of materials – black India ink, pencil, watercolour and pastel. Some are figurative, and depict bodies or partial figurative shapes and coils. Others are entirely abstract. Throughout, there runs a theme of shapes – seemingly intestinal or umbilical – curling protectively around other such forms. Some of the drawings have text inserted within – which far from simply illustrating “disorientation and isolation” as claimed, actually suggest that Appelbroog approached her circumstances with her sense of humour intact. “I’m just waiting for this to dry,” reads one inscription. One of the watercolours shows a group of figures standing in what appears to be a state of abjection, suggesting that withdrawal and isolation for Appelbroog was a positive choice. Other drawings have “Whoops! It’s that time again… bye,” in a scene where one shape seeks to feed from another. In a pastel sketch, a series of shapes appear to form a precarious tower. The writing reads:
‘OVER
THE
BRINK’
Ida Applebroog, Mercy Hospital (courtesy of Hauser & Wirth)
For all they are the product of crisis, there is something comforting about the softness, the intertwining of the shapes in the drawings. Colours blend rather than jar, and the shapes, while seemingly evidencing the artist retreating into and starting to use her art to dissect the forms of her own body, demonstrate a sense of unending curiosity rather than body-horror. This is work that is both unflinching and beautiful.
Ida Applebroog’s Mercy Hospital drawings are on show until 29 July 2017
Susan Te Kahurangi King
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Untitled (courtesy of Marlborough Contemporary)
Marlborough Contemporary (6 Albemarle Street London W1S 4BY) is showing a range of drawings, including early works, by Susan Te Kahurangi King. These are, simply, a joy. One of the things that strikes you immediately is the continuity of drafting skill and of imagery and characterisation from the work of her youth to now. Susan’s world – its themes and personalities – have been there from the start. The work is also reflexive. Figures appear armed with paints and giant crayons, commenting on the production of the work, and perhaps showing the artist mocking her own pretensions. This can also be a comedically malicious world – characters are bitten and have their tails pulled. Meanwhile, others happily eat ice lollies and dance.
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Untitled
One of the refreshing points to note in the Marlborough Contemporary presentation is that the work is simply shown as the work of one of the gallery’s artists, who happens to choose not to speak. The gallery has hosted a ‘Drawing with Susan’ event, an interactive silent group drawing session with the artist on-site. If so-called ‘outsider art’ is to receive the recognition its artists deserve, then both these exhibitions show ways in which the art can be curated respectfully and imaginatively without stigmatising the circumstances of its creation.
Susan Te Kahurangi King’s works are on show until 1 July 2017
If you’re a follower of this blog, you may know that we opened an exhibition of work by Scottish artist Steve Murison last night (1st February) at Gallery Lock In, Brighton (UK). The exhibition so far has been a huge success, with a new record for Gallery Lock In for the number of people who attended the opening night. If you haven’t seen it already, it continues until 5th February, 1-7pm daily, with a special ‘Werewolf Swap Shop’ taking place on Saturday 4th February. Read on for more!
The Cat Cave, Jazz Up Your Lizard at Gallery Lock In
The exhibition is the second physical exhibition I have co-curated on behalf of kdoutsiderart.com, but the first solo show, and the first where I have been working very closely with the artist during all stages of the project.
I have wanted to exhibit Steve’s work for a number of years, but often timing hasn’t been right, or practicalities have got in the way. However, the five year anniversary of this blog, and the kind donation of gallery space from Beth Troakes (Gallery Lock In) provided the perfect combination of right timing and most importantly – a venue!
The interactive chalk cat wall, Jazz Up Your Lizard
The initial idea came about in late 2016, which gave us quite a short schedule to work to. We agreed that Steve would travel down from Aberdeen with his work, and we would hang and open the show on the Wednesday – quite a risk! But it was a risk that astronomically paid off. On the opening night, the show was incredibly well received, with people eager to see Steve’s curious works in the flesh and, sometimes more importantly, meet the artist behind them.
Although Steve’s ethos is incredibly humbling – he is adamant anyone should be able to own good art, regardless of how much money they have – we managed to sell six pieces on the first night. But there was a part of the show that wasn’t for sale – the Cat Cave. To take away one of his ‘Cats of the Roman Empire’, Steve asks for a drawing of a werewolf in return. To honour this tradition, we are holding a ‘Werewolf Swap Shop’ on Saturday 4th February, inviting people of all ages to join Steve in the gallery, draw their own interpretation of a werewolf, and leave with one of Steve’s characterful cats.
Cats of the Roman Empire, Jazz Up Your Lizard
Jazz Up Your Lizard has so far been very well received, with press coverage in the Brighton Argus and Viva Brighton (click here to read the article). Thank you so much to everyone who came along on the opening night, and if you haven’t yet seen the show, there’s still time! But most of all, I want to say a huge thank you to Steve for his unstoppable and uninhibited creation of amazing work, his incredibly helpful and laid back approach to the exhibition, and for agreeing to take part in the show in the first place!
Werewolf Swap Shop The Werewolf Swap Shop is taking place in the gallery space on Saturday 4th February. Come along and exchange a drawing of a werewolf for a Cat of the Roman Empire! You can also be creative and leave your mark on our chalk cat wall.
Jazz Up Your Lizard: an exhibition of work by Steve Murison continues until Sunday 5th February (1-7pm) at Gallery Lock In, Little Western Street, Brighton, BN1 2PU.
Alongside a physical exhibition of work by Scottish artist Steve Murison in Brighton in early February, there is also the opportunity to see work by many of the artists who have featured on the blog since its inception.
Danny Sumbler, Alchemical Romance
‘kdoutsiderart: 5 Years‘ is an online showcase of work by 21 artists who have had an artists’ showcase at some point on kdoutsiderart.com.
The work is diverse and varied: from a textile piece by Anthony Stevens, to Jenifer Renzel’s futuristic totem pole painting. There’s an intricate monochrome drawing by Red Tweny and mosaic ‘savage’ 3D figures by Pamela Irving.
Judy Shreve, The Bird Listener
The online exhibition is a big thank you to all of the artists who have shared their work on the blog at some point, for letting us into their world and enabling us to enjoy their unique creativity.
As part of the 5 year anniversary of kdoutsiderart.com, an exhibition of vibrant works by Scottish artist Steve Murison will open at Gallery Lock In, Brighton (UK), on 1st February.
“I think about skulls all the time, inverted crosses, mouldering decay. I picture burning beasts howling with intricate jewelled crowns. Have you ever witnessed something go horribly wrong? I haven’t looked at much of other peoples art for a few years, my simple line is unfurling and my cerulean blue stained hands give a hearty wave your way. Rum and coke. Violent Science fiction. The folk I love. Endless coffee on Sunday mornings. Bukowski. McCarthy. Tool. All my days smeared across ragged boards.” – Steve Murison
It’s Never Just a Cat
Steve has had work exhibited as part of Creative Future’s Impact Art Fair in London in 2013, and as part of previous kdoutsiderart exhibition, Miraculous Urgency, in Brighton in 2015.
A Lizard Hung By Sickly Moon
I first posted about Steve Murison back in August 2013, after seeing his work at the Impact Art Fair. His work is vibrant, somewhat naive in form, but incredibly deep in content. His characters take the form of animals – real and fantastical, and his pieces are tagged with comical but relatable titles – think We Found Your Idiot Skull in a Volcano, or A Petrified Heart in a Splintered Box.
We Found Your Idiot Skull in a Volcano
The exhibition space will also include a Werewolf Swap Shop, where you can bag yourself a unique cat painting by Steve in exchange for your own interpretation of a werewolf. Steve collects drawings of werewolves, so this is an exciting opportunity to share your work with Steve and take away your own little piece of his creativity.
Whisper Some More You Sweet Devil
Jazz Up Your Lizard will open on 1st February, 7 – 9pm, and will continue until 5th February, opening 1 – 7pm daily.
Gallery Lock In
Little Western Street
Brighton
East Sussex
BN1 2PU
Happy New Year! January 2017 is an exciting time for kdoutsiderart.com, as it marks 5 years since the very very first blog post! To mark this occasion, there will be two exciting things happening over the next couple of months. Before I go into these, I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all of the artists who have shared their work on the blog throughout the past 5 years, and a big thanks also goes to all of you readers – you’ve all given me reason to carry on writing when I felt I was sending stuff out into the abyss!
To thank you all, and to celebrate five years, I wanted to produce something physical in addition to something that is accessible from all over the world. For this reason, there will be two different exhibitions happening over the next couple of months. The first is a physical exhibition in Brighton, UK, showcasing the work of Scottish artist Steve Murison, and the second is an online exhibition featuring work by many of the artists who have appeared on this blog over the past five years.
Jazz Up Your Lizard: an exhibition of work by Steve Murison Gallery Lock In, Brighton, United Kingdom 1st – 5th February 2017
A Lizard Hung by a Sickly Moon
I am so pleased to announce the opening of an exhibition of work by Scottish artist Steve Murison in collaboration with Gallery Lock In, Brighton (UK) in early February to mark the 5 year anniversary of the blog.
I have been a big fan of Steve’s work ever since I first saw it at Creative Future’s Impact Art Fair in 2013. Since then, I have featured Steve’s work on kdoutsiderart, and have a steadily growing collection of it at home. Steve’s work is vibrant, somewhat naive in form, but incredibly deep in content. His characters take the form of animals – real and fantastical, and his pieces are tagged with comical but relatable titles.
A Petrified Heart in a Splintered Box
The exhibition opens on 1st February 2017, 7 – 9pm.
It continues from 2nd – 5th February, 1 – 7pm daily.
Gallery Lock In
Little Western Street
Brighton
BN1 2PU
kdoutsiderart: 5 years Online exhibition Opens 1st January 2017
Jenifer Renzel, Totem Pointing East
I am equally as pleased to announce the launch of a new online exhibition to mark the anniversary. ‘kdoutsiderart: 5 Years’ will feature work by many of the artists who have had artists’ showcases on the blog since its inception. I asked each artist to send an image of their work to be included in the online display as thank you for sharing their work at some point over the past 5 years.
Red Tweny, Looking out on the Balcony
The exhibition is incredibly diverse, including mixed media pieces, paintings, drawings, computer-generated art and sculpture.
A few months back, you may have seen my call out for artists to submit work on the theme of ‘outsider art’ for an online exhibition. Well, we had some great, diverse submissions, and the exhibition is now ready.
If you are a regular reader of kdoutsiderart.com you will have noticed a focus on the terminology itself and how this might impact on the artists it represents. Throughout history, the different language used to describe what we call outsider art has usually been decided by someone who is not themselves an ‘outsider artist.’
For this online exhibition, I wanted to bring in the perspective of artists who are regularly ‘labelled’ by the term to bring some balance to the continuing conversation.
As human beings, I think it’s incredibly difficult to not label things. We do it all the time – using our own memory and experience, we group things with other similar things (objects, people, places) in a bid to make sense of them. It has been the same throughout the history of art: work created with quick, expressive brushstrokes towards the latter part of the 19th century was labelled ‘Impressionism,’ and Dali, Magritte and others who produced work from their unconscious were named ‘Surrealists.’ So, it is not unique to have a name for a group of art or artists. However, what’s puzzling about the term outsider art is that it doesn’t describe a specific artistic style; rather, it describes the person who created the work.
This exhibition aims to shine a light on the views of artists who align themselves – or who have been aligned – with the term ‘outsider art.’ The callout received mixed responses to the question: what does outsider art mean to you? From experience, there seems to be a split between artists who are very happy to be included under the ‘outsider art’ umbrella, and those who would rather not be. It has been great hearing artists’ alternative titles; I’ve heard things like ‘Independent Art,’ ‘Dark Surrealist Art,’ ‘Symbolic Automatism,’ ‘Nomadic Art.’
My hope is that this online exhibition will be a rich addition to the continuing conversation around the term outsider art.
Featured image: Ofir Hirsch, La Hechicera Enamorada Terrenero
In this post, Jeremy Davies writes about two upcoming exhibitions in Morocco featuring the work of self-taught ‘junk market artist’ Ben Ali.
Ben Ali
“It is rare to find an artistic genius; still rarer to find two in the same family. But leading Italian art critic Corrado Levi believes he has done just that, in a junk market in Morocco.
The geniuses in question are Ben Ali (Abdelghani Didouh, born 1966) and his late father Ali; the junk market is in Essaouira, a fishing port and seaside resort on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, around 200km west of Marrakech.
Ben Ali
Ben Ali has been painting in his tiny, one-room studio in the junk market since the mid-2000s. This is a humble place, one of around 30 semi-derelict fishermen’s huts sandwiched between the abandoned sardine canning factories of Essaouira’s former industrial quarter and the vast wilderness of the Atlantic Ocean.
A gentle, soft-spoken man, Ben Ali is a self-taught painter, who turned to art after his previous career as a fisherman came to an abrupt end when the sea stole his boat, his friends and one of his brothers.
Ben Ali
He paints from tiny pots of enamel, mixing the colours on cardboard and brushing straight onto canvas, wooden panels and objects bought or found in the joteya (junk market): old TVs, boat oars, wooden washboards, doors, cupboards and gas canisters. His emphasis is on shape and colour, with little in the way of perspective.
The results are bold, thoughtful, and often quietly disturbing. His characters are ethereal and amorphous; some are human, some animal and some both. There are skull-like faces; dark, sharp-eyed figures, both male and female; shadowy wraiths with thin, elongated legs; horned goats, donkeys and huge, legless cows. We see tiny details too, like recurring motifs: guns, flowers, a key, a dentist’s pliers.
Ben Ali
As viewers we sense strongly that Ben Ali is painting to exorcise his demons. Indeed, while reticent about explaining his art, he almost admits as much: “In my paintings there are all the ghosts, that little by little appear on the canvas like the memories of a childhood dream.”
From an early age Ben Ali watched and learned from his father Ali, a former Vietnam veteran who effectively founded a ‘school’ of artists in the joteya during the 1970s.
Ben Ali
Ali’s art, which broke all the rules of Muslim culture by presenting graphic depictions of human sexuality, remains largely hidden from public view but is highly prized by collectors, who believe Ali warrants international recognition as a major artist.
Ben Ali’s imagined worlds undoubtedly draw inspiration from the work of his father.
“When I saw the work of my father I loved it,” he says. “More than anything else, his work was simple, it made me laugh or hurt me, and this is the reason I loved his work. Every time I passed by to see him, it inspired me more and more. I chose the name Ben Ali (the son of Ali) because I am my father’s son. I work in my father’s studio and I continue the work of my father.”
Ben Ali
But Corrado Levi – an architect, artist, teacher, theorist, curator, freethinker and intellectual, who is one of Italy’s most respected art critics – says Ben Ali has built on his heritage and transcended it to find his own style.
“The father Ali paints a humanity possessed of sexuality: men display their sex provocatively, and women show theirs without shame. The son Ben Ali, meanwhile, paints figures that don’t show their sex, and so the male/female identity remains nuanced.
“The father Ali spreads out the paint with repeated brush strokes, creating a delicacy and vibrancy that contrasts with the violence of his representation. The son Ben Ali, on the other hand, uses dense and glossy paint, and so his ghostly subjects seem to wander in an unlimited space.
Ben Ali
“The bodies of the father Ali push themselves into bold, distorted shapes (think of the later Matisse gouache cut-outs). The bodies of the son Ben Ali have threadlike legs, accentuating their formlessness.
“To simplify: Ali: the body and substance. Ben Ali: the spirit and transparency. Two geniuses.”
This summer Essaouira is hosting two exhibitions of Ben Ali’s works, curated by two local galleries, Elizir and Mashi Mushki: a retrospective at the swanky Sofitel Essaouira Mogador Golf and Spa (15 July to 4 September), and a collection of new works at Dar Souiri, a cultural centre in the walled old town (26 August to 4 September).
The exhibitions are being held to raise money for Project 91, a local charity which is setting up a fund for the widows of fishermen lost at sea.
‘Life is Your Very Own Canvas’ is an exhibition showcasing expressive art created by individuals somewhere along the road to recovery. The exhibition has been organised by Penumbra Art; a new collective of artists who are exploring the creative path together in a supportive, encouraging and safe environment. The exhibition is happening from 27 May – 3 June 2016 at Seventeen in Aberdeen.
3D dragon sculptures, high quality black and white street photography and a time travelling comic strip are but a few of the eclectic works on show.
Mid-exhibition, on 31 May, there will be a showcase event where I will be talking about outsider art: then and now, and Best Girl Athlete will be performing.
REDEFINING OUTSIDER ART: LOOKING AT LANGUAGE
AN ONLINE EXHIBITION LOOKING AT THE TERM OUTSIDER ART AND WHAT IT MEANS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Call out for submissions to an online exhibition focusing on the term outsider art and what it means to YOU as an artist.
Bill Traylor, Brown Mule, 1939 [source: http://www.petulloartcollection.org]kdoutsiderart.com regularly focuses on the ambiguities of the term outsider art and what potential impact it might have on the artists it aims to ‘define.’ In late 2015, I posted a blog that outlined the thoughts of six artists who find themselves housed under this ‘outsider’ umbrella. Following on from this, I’d like to expand this idea, and am inviting artists who might in some way align themselves with the term outsider art to tell me what they think. I’d like to know what you think of the term outsider art, and – if you have an idea – what a better term might be.
I’m looking for responses in a variety of media – using words, images, sculpture, performance, sound – to contribute to an online exhibition challenging the term outsider art. Unlike other conversations around the term, I’d like us to work together to break down the term outsider art and for you to really think about what it means to you as an artist. By providing real-life responses from artists as well as potential alternatives, we can be a positive addition to the continuing conversation.
Submissions Submitted work must be in a digital format – this can be images, a sound or movie file, or a PDF or Word Document. Each artist can submit one piece, and all pieces must be accompanied with a brief description of how it relates to the continuing conversation around outsider art. Please email all submissions to kdoutsiderart@yahoo.com by 1st July 2016.
KDOA 