Held from January 21 – 24 the 24^th edition of the Outsider Art Fair featured 60 exhibitors with a growing number of New York based contemporary art dealers and two curated and memorial exhibitions, ”Babel” an installation of 3d-printed imaginary towers and a memorial exhibition on Ionel Talpazan. The comprehensive fair showed in its new home the Metropolitan Pavilion a plethora of styles, media, materials, and approaches difficult to catalogue.  Everything imaginable seemed to be represented from crude instant works to sophisticated, carefully executed, complex works of art. The creative impulse ruled, though originality was not necessarily a premium.  Numerous early sales during the first day, and a large engaged audience which made the fair difficult to navigate, indicate that the fair was a success.

Given the 13.4 billion dollar sales Christie’s and Sotheby's generated  in 2015, the  low cost outsider work appears as a relief. Prices were running from several hundred to up to $50,000, reflecting a booming art market on the lower end. Works at the equally interesting and well attended Affordable Art Fair were limited to a maximum of $10.000. Outsider art may be going mainstream as Christie’s has arranged an auction of well-known outsider artists. 

Going back to the meaning of the outsider term  by Jean Dubuffet and Roger Cardinal, it encompasses  works of art that originate outside the confines of official art as it is primarily certified by  galleries, auction houses and museums.  And the range is considerable. Dubuffet had children and mental patients in mind whose work was art brut for him.  It was created in isolation with the work unblemished by training in the arts. But the category expanded to include many other orientations which were not adulterated by official culture such as raw, marginal, naïve, chance, primitive, street, and folk art.

The outsider art fair featured work in any possible material like fabric, paper, wood, iron, steel, stone, wires, ropes. books  and plastics and a multitude of forms such as  ,  3D printing, photo imagery, ready mades, collages, assemblages, dolls, cut outs,  paintings,  found objects, art by unknowns and mixed media to name but a few.  The reaction of the spectators ran the gamut from surprise and puzzlement to intrigue and acquisition. I certainly enjoyed the maelstrom of surprises and variety of work created by the outsiders.

Yet some work stood out. There were superbly executed ready mades by the French artist and civil servant Gerard Cambon at the American Primitive Gallery incorporating tiny groups of individuals in each work. Looking down one discovered the amazing juxtaposition of people and the bas-reliefs they were embedded in representing everyday life and problems. Apparently most of his work was sold during the first day. Jana Paleckova at the Fred Giampietro Gallery was present with a series of found photographs which she modified by adding surrealistic components to the images, an approach also shared by some other artists in the show.  The memorial exhibition was devoted to Ionel Talpazan who passed in 2015 and focused his work on unidentified flying objects, UFOs, and space.  His detailed colorful drawings of the exterior and interior of flying saucers and their descriptions offer an appealing imagery of the objects.  The Cuban Felipe Jesus Consavoles from the Fleisher Ollman gallery, a former worker in the tobacco industry, offered in “You Can’t Forget”   a stunning and complicated collage. Produced during his decades long stay in Miami it incorporates mementos from his life, liquor labels, cut outs, and illustrations.  The Brazilian Chico Tabibuia, an illiterate grandson of slaves, presented by Mariposa Unusual Art sculptured walnut wood continuing Central and West African woodcarving traditions.  His figures include erotic imagery but are meant to neutralize and imprison evil spirits.  Gods and spirits inspired his work which was recognized in Brazil before he passed in 2007.

Overall the Outsider Art Show was a learning and joyful experience because it conveyed unexpected new ways of looking at art work.  Not being shaped by formal art instruction and working in relative isolation certainly prompts creativity.   

Claus Mueller,  filmexchange@gmail.com