Emirates Open Skies, January 2020
The world’s biggest art fair showcasing work made by those who are self-taught or outside the professional art mainstream in some way, the Outsider Art Fair celebrates exciting new artists from across the world. Fair Director Rebecca Hoffman explains.
First of all can you explain the Outsider Art Fair?
It gives a platform to artists and artworks that are created without any influence from academic or mainstream art historical references. It is truly unique in the art world landscape – there are no other art fairs dedicated to the work that we champion.
So tell us about an artist at this year’s fair who epitomises that ethos?
Well, the independent Parisian curator Antoine Gentil will be displaying the works of the artist Isidore in the same manner in which the artist shows and sells his work on the streets of Paris. In Paris, Isidore allows his clients and visitors to name their own price, a model that Gentil will extend for Outsider Art Fair visitors.
But is the idea of an outsider artist having to be represented by an established gallery in order to get noticed a bit of a paradox?
Well, outsider art has always had a renegade spirit to it. And I don’t believe there is a paradox: in the majority of cases these artists aren’t even advocating for themselves and it takes a third party to bring the work to the public’s attention.
What are you particularly looking forward to this year?
I am very excited for the Creative Growth Presents booth – a booth dedicated to the aboriginal works from the Mangkaja Art Center in Australia. Also, I am looking forward to seeing the works of German artist, Dietmar Busse, shown by Fierman Gallery. Busse, although trained as a fashion photographer, abandoned his high gloss images for grittier and more expressive works looking at 20th century German history. Lastly, I am very pleased to be working with Howard Greenberg Gallery for the first time on a solo booth of Vivian Meier’s photographs.
The curated project on indigenous Peruvian art looks fascinating, too.
Yes, The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs is an exhibition of the Shipibo artists Sara Flores and Celia Vasquez Yui. Learning that Flores’ works were created by a shaman who utilises her canvases as a means to heal the world – in conjunction with the ayahuasca ceremonies she performs – fascinated me. It’s great to bring light to these two artists who live and work in a region of the Peruvian Amazon where indigenous peoples are struggling for their cultural and social survival.
There are also galleries at the fair from Tokyo and New Delhi. Does it feel to you that the character of outsider art changes from country to country?
We at Outsider Art Fair have been working hard to provide a continued expanded global view of the outsider art field – making it clear that raw creativity exists everywhere.
New York, USA https://www.outsiderartfair.com
