HYPERALLERGIC – OAF NY 2016 – FRED.GIAMPIETRO Gallery

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FREDGIAMPIETROGALLERY, HYPERALLERGIC, Jana Paleckova, OAF2016, Susan Gerard

Great Article on the Outsider Art Fair NY 2016 by Hyperallergic’s Clair Voon!

GALLERIES

The Personal Passions and Detailed Devotions of the Outsider Art Fair

• by Claire Voon on January 22, 2016

Now in its 24th edition, the Outsider Art Fair has found a new home this year at the Metropolitan Pavilion, currently filled with the fair’s largest number of exhibitors yet. Of the 64 galleries participating from seven different countries, 24 are first-time exhibitors, with a large number of dealers who represent self-taught artists arriving from the nearby Lower East Side. The resulting presentation is incredibly diverse and sprawling. Most booths feature walls hung with artworks and shelves or pedestals covered with curios; you won’t find any sleek light boxes, digital screens, or colossal sculptures that make for easy Instagram fodder here. Rather, the fair is dominated by works that suggest a dedication to handicraft or an intimate fixation on a subject. This attention to detail — tantamount to a reverence — is what makes much of the fair’s art so intriguing and, simply, great.

The materials these artists use to realize their visions tend to be simple, mostly everyday items, manipulated and transformed with devotion. Many artists just engaged with what was available to them: pages ripped from notebooks, recycled paper, paper bags, fabric scraps, bits of wood, found objects. These materials suggest a shared disregard for glamour and an eagerness or need for personal expression.

Cardboard panels serve as the backing for two colorful paintings by the self-taught artist Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, on display at Andrew Edlin; what was once discarded is revived with dynamic, fluid landscapes. Wire-bound and taped sculptures stand like miniature industrial mummies at Fleisher/Ollman gallery, their unconventional bindings wound tight around items like coins and bolts, concealing the small objects like precious treasures. Made by an unknown artist dubbed “Philadelphia Wireman,” the group of six sculptures is part of about 1,200 in existence, abandoned and found in 1982 — a physical remnant attesting to a ritual of creation that was deeply significant to someone. I was reminded of these wrappings when I saw the colorful cocoon works of Tony Pedemonte, on view at Cavin-Morris, that are also made of whatever material he has available, from wood fragments to bicycle wheels. These sculptures by the Creative Growth artist are incredibly charged, disarming in their resemblance to a spider’s dying prey but beguiling in their suggested warmth and vibrancy. (Curiously, they also resemble very closely the works of the late Judith Scott, also represented by Creative Growth.)

More explicitly menacing is Galerie Anne de Villepoix’s series of drawings on tracing paper by Annette Barcelo, who has a story for those searching for the stereotypical narrative of the psychologically troubled outsider artist. A 73-year-old Swiss native, Barcelo claims to be haunted by demons and uses markers to draw vignettes of the peculiar beasts, each one carefully bordered by a thick line of color, as though she were attempting to contain these visions in her art. A series I found just as puzzling but much more compelling is a crowd of painted clay sculptures by Susan Gerard at Fred Giampietro Gallery. Easy to overlook because of their small scale, they stand as an expression of bizarre human interactions and deserve prolonged examination. The figurines — for whatever reason almost all male — are carrying out medical treatments, but others are also being harmed, forming an eerie collection. The self-taught Gerard is a physical therapist, and I wondered if her visualization of these themes was a way to find relief from constantly working with the pain of others.

One unique aspect of the Outsider Art Fair is that not all the art on view was initially intended as art. Perhaps the most delightful surprise is a series of largely anonymous 18th–21st-century drawings from India on view at newcomer Magic Markings. Likely created by monks or religious leaders who reused paper scraps such as old ledgers, the illustrations include diagrams of planetary positions and intricate patterns used as meditation devices. The inclusion of artifacts that showcase the spiritual beliefs of a non-Western community is refreshing, and also exemplifies the ever-broadening definition of outsider art.

Much more recently, the Memphis-born Hawkins Bolden, blind since the age of eight, constructed metal “scarecrows” out of objects he collected around his neighborhood, in an effort to keep birds away from his garden. Out of his practical pursuit emerged a group of whimsical metalworks tasked with keeping watch over and rejecting the outside world. Humanoid because of their strategically arranged holes that look like eyes, the sculptures occupy the entire space of Shrine’s booth, standing on and around a patch of grass. Facing these rusting sentries, one has a sense of Bolden’s resolve to bar unwanted visitors; stepping into the booth seems like it would be an act of transgression, of flouting one man’s fervent pursuit of his own secured space.

Many of these artists aren’t household names, but as figures like Henry Darger prove, outsider art isn’t always so “outsider.” This year marked the passing of two well-known artists of the genre: Paul Laffoley and Ionel Talpazan. While the former’s works are absent at the fair, organizers pay tribute to the latter, who died last September and was known for his long-term obsession with depicting UFOs. Near the fair’s entrance is a memorial exhibition that features an array of Talpazan’s enigmatic spaceship paintings and plaster sculptures that balance on their bases like enlarged children’s spinning tops. Seeing years of his cosmic art together underscores his relentless devotion to exploring unsolved mysteries of the universe. This gathering of Talpazan’s lifework nods to the personal nature of outsider art that makes it especially appealing and that shines at this fair: the need to create primarily for the self, no matter how otherworldly the focus.

Painted clay sculptures by Susan Gerard at Fred Giampietro Gallery

Tony Pedemonte, “Untitled” (2015) at Cavin-Morris Gallery

Hawkins Bolden’s scarecrows at Shrine

Memorial exhibition to Ionel Talpazan

Indian drawings from the 18th–21st centuries at Magic Markings

Works by Uman at Galerie Anne de Villepoix

Daniel Martin Diaz, “Collective consciousness” (2015) at American Primitive Gallery

Sculptures by Lonnie Holley and Joe Minter at James Fuentes

Jana Paleckova at Fred Giampietro Gallery

Works by Linda Marathuwarr and Judy Manany at Rebecca Hossack

Fabric and button sculptures by Momoka Imura at Yukiko Koide Presents

Felipe Jesus Consalvos, “Untitled (White Eagle, Violin and Case)” (c. 1920–50) at Fleisher/Ollman

Paper works by Hidehito Matsubara at YOD Gallery

Collages and assemblages by Peter Thomashow at Marion Harris

Various erotic dolls by Les Frères Lessard at Polysémie

L’Inlassable Gallery

Works from South America at Mariposa Unusual Art

Gilley’s Gallery

Outsider Art Fair 2016 continues at the Metropolitan Pavilion (125 W 18th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan) through January 24.

Tizzie Mills at the Outsider Art Fair with FRED.GIAMPIETRO Gallery

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OAF2016, Outsider Art, Tizzie Mills

Check out this wonderful article by the Observer Culture  featuring the work of Tizzie currently on view at the Outsider Art Fair NY 2016! Come visit FRED.GIAMPIETRO Gallery’s booth this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to view the works in person!

Outside In: Finding the Next Self-Taught Master at the Outsider Art Fair

As the New York fair celebrates self taught artists, a new world record for Outsider Art is set at Christie’s

By Alanna Martinez • 01/22/16 2:26pm

The Outsider Art Fair is not most art fairs. Unlike in the Contemporary art world, it’s discerning eyes, not padded pocket books, that spur sales here.

This year’s fair, the 24th edition, features work by a homeless man, a developmentally disabled man and a New Jersey police detective, to name a few.

Over 60 international galleries—from well known returning galleries such as New York’s Hirschl & Adler and Morgan Lehman  to newcomers like Paris’ Galerie Anne De Villepoix and a joint booth presentation from New York outfit JTT and Portland’s Adams and Ollman—brought their Outsider work to Chelsea’s Metropolitan Pavilion.

More than ever, as the fair opened its doors on Thursday, it was evident that in the world of Outsider art which, perhaps to its benefit, is loosely defined even by those in the business, there’s no shortage of new discoveries.

Nor is there a limit to the market’s potential, evidenced by the sale of African American artist William Edmondson’s 1936 sculpture Boxer at this morning’s Outsider Art sale at Christies. The work set a new world record for Outsider art at auction, edging out the previous record (just over $745,000 for a work by Henry Darger), and fetching $785,000 after an intense bidding war.

One artist making his art world and art fair debut was Tizzie Mills at New Haven’s Fred Giampietro gallery. Mr. Mills is homeless and a New Haven local who visits the gallery daily, owner Fred Giampietro told the Observer. Mr. Mills paints comic superheroes and villains from Deadpool to Batman and the Joker with meticulous care, softly creating shadow and edging with feathered strokes and thickly building up texture on the surfaces of walls and buildings in the background. And nearly all of his paintings feature text that riffs on the sharp dialogue you might find in a comic strip.

The characters are the sole subjects of his art and he’s known in New Haven for working on his paintings no matter where you find him. Because the works are so new, they’re on the affordable end of the wide range of price points found at the fair. Each work is $650.

The Good Luck Gallery is Los Angeles’ only art space specializing in Outsider art and also happened to be debuting an artist the fair: Willard Hill. The octogenarian Manchester, Tennessee, native is a prolific sculptor who crafts delicate figurines and playful tableaus made from painted masking tape and other found household items, such as foil or pieces of his wife’s wig. Mr. Hill works so fast and makes so many, according to gallery owner Paige Wery, that they completely fill the tiny shack behind his home that he uses as a studio.

“He fishes and he makes art, that’s all he does,” Good Luck’s Winter Jenssen told the Observer.

Apart from selling some of his sculptures to a few residents in Manchester, Mr. Hill has never sold his work at an international venue before. Individual sculptures range in price from $800 to $1,600.

Also at Good Luck’s booth is another artist whose work drew attention from passersby. Art Moura’s sewn fabric sculptures are being shown both in the gallery’s current exhibition is L.A., and at the fair’s booth in New York. The sculptures, which are reminiscent of masks and carved figures found in African and Oceanic art, were described by Mr. Jenssen as both “creepy and sweet at the same time.”

At New York’s Y Gallery was the work of Charles Vincent Sabba, a longtime New Jersey police lieutenant whose experiences on the force have deeply influenced his art. On view are just a small portion of the nearly 80 fingerprint drawings Mr. Sabba has made for his series The Wall of Resistance. Gallery director Carlos Garcia Montero Protzel explained that each portrait is either an iconic criminal (some are known for their involvement in famous art heists), or the likeness of a stolen masterpiece, rendered using the same ink used to fingerprint criminals upon arrest and painted on fingerprint cards Mr. Sabba acquired through his day job.

In addition to the fingerprint paintings, Mr. Sabba makes pastel drawings featuring his alter ego and performance personality, Actaeon, who is based on a mythical Greek huntsman. The drawings depict in graphic detail—that leans heavily on art historical imagery—Actaeon’s various real life performances and sexual fantasies.

Tokyo dealer Yukiko Koide is showing work by Japanese artist Yasuuki Ueno, a mentally handicapped man whose drawings are inspired by the women who appear in fashion magazines. Mr. Ueno’s colored pencil compositions, which are $1,500-$1,800 a piece, are arranged similarly to that of the grid of a comic book page, with some panels larger than others, and some featuring decorative borders and patterns.

“He may identify as a woman, because he has never once drawn a man,” a representative from the gallery explained.

This is also Mr. Ueno’s U.S. art fair debut.

From first time exhibitor Anne De Villepoix, a contemporary French gallery that has shown at major fairs such as Fiac, is a presentation of the Swiss artist Annette Barcelo.

According to the gallery, the artist only works in series, and on view are two. The first, is a series of 12 black and white paintings on pieces of cardboard, each one a depiction of a different horned or animal-like beast. Figures are painted without eyes, and with stark white faces.

“Everytime there is a woman in a drawing, it’s almost certainly her,” said a representative from the gallery.

In the second series at the booth, the artist has painted similar figures, this time in color and on tracing paper.

Lastly, Lindsay Gallery of Columbus, Ohio is displaying the extraordinary drawings of Midwest artist Jacques de Du-Glass, who created in painstaking detail an entire fictional town called Lynxborough, Indiana.

It would be easy to think while looking at the architectural drawings Lynxborough’s houses that Du-Glass, who was born James Donald Beatty, at least had some formal art training or exposure to architecture history, but that’s not the case. Du-Glass, who formally changed his name later in life, was a reclusive self taught draftsman who based the drawings on some existing buildings in his hometown of Southbend, Indiana, but mostly from imagination. He even went so far as to include the names of church congregation members and other townsfolk on the back of his artworks.

The drawings are priced between $750 and the high $2,000 range for works that are double-sided.

The Outsider Art Fair is open through Sunday, January 24 at the Metropolitan Pavilion at 125 West 18th Street in Manhattan.

 

 

Outsider Art Fair 2016 NYC

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OAF2016

We are thrilled to be exhibiting works by Jana Paleckova, Tizzie Mills, Larry Lewis, Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Miroslav Tichy, Alexander Bogardy, Susan Gerard, Sister Gertrude Morgan, and anonymous at the Outsider Art Fair in NYC! If you are in NY come visit us at the Metropolitan Pavilion Booth 7.