self-taught artists

March 5, 2025March 19, 2025, by Melissa Stern

Insider Outsider

A painting of a person in a suit and tie

AI-generated content may be incorrect. — Adhemar Ahmad- portray 1969. Oilt, thin wooden board, unprimed canvas, staples. 32.5 x 24.25 2002

This past weekend New York saw the latest iteration of the Outsider Art Fair. Started in 1993, it has become a NYC institution and seems to be thriving after a few lean pandemic years. The Fair serves a field that has evolved a great deal over the past 30 years, and I really felt that this year more than in the past. As the number of now “blue chip” or “Old Master Self-Taught” artists dwindle, there’s been an influx of both younger artists and some who push against the definitions of self-taught in the first place. It’s a sticky subject and one that I have no answer to.

March 12, 2023March 13, 2023, by Melissa Stern

Non-Profits Shine at The Outsider Art Fair

Creative Growth guy.jpg — From Creative Growth, Oakland, CA.

This past weekend marked the 30^th anniversary of the Outsider Art Fair, which debuted in NYC in 1993 at The Puck Building. Now housed at The Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea, it has come roaring back after a few quiet pandemic years.

Out of the sixty-four galleries exhibiting thirteen were representing non-profit organizations that work with developmentally challenged populations. For me these were the most exciting booths at the fair. The non-profits bring work that is consistently fresh and exciting. This year’s fair included organizations from Germany, Portland Oregon and Chicago that I had not seen in previous years. Several showed work among the most surprising and compelling at the Fair.

February 14, 2018June 4, 2020, by Etty Yaniv

James Castle: People, Places & Things at the NY Studio School

James Castle (1899-1977), Untitled (drive-through tree), n.d. Found paper, soot, 5 7/8 x 7 3/4 in. CAS09-0179 © 2008 James Castle Collection and Archive LP, All Rights Reserved — James Castle (1899-1977), Untitled (drive-through tree), n.d. Found paper, soot, 5 7/8 x 7 3/4 in. CAS09-0179
© 2008 James Castle Collection and Archive LP, All Rights Reserved

The exhibition James Castle: People, Places & Things, curated by Karen Wilkin and currently on view at the New York Studio School Gallery, features over fifty important works and ephemera, surveying Castle’s diverse modes of working. It runs the gamut from his well-known drawings of farmyards and interiors to the less familiar depictions of house, machines, clothing, and people, to his books and objects. It includes even more rarely exhibited objects – some sources for his imagery borrowed from the James Castle Collection and Archive LP and from the William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation. In her curatorial statement Wilkin says she aims to affirm why Castle should be regarded as an American master. Indeed, the breadth of his work is jaw dropping and the emotional resonance is deeply moving.

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