> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Exploring an Expanded Field at the Outsider Art Fair - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/exploring-an-expanded-field-at-the-outsider-art-fair/ - Published: 2015-01-30T23:09:56.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T15:37:11.000Z - Description: Nowhere can you feel the silliness (and yet cloying realness) of the term "outsider art" more distinctly than at the Outsider Art Fair, which, by its very nature, is an insiders' affair. - Author: Jillian Steinhauer - Tags: Art, Chelsea, John Brill, Kent Fine Art, Manhattan, Outsider Art, Outsider Art Fair, Photo Essays, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:08 (2014, 2015, part 2) ![A view of the Outsider Art Fair 2015 (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04195.jpg) A view of the Outsider Art Fair 2015 (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic) A common misconception about so-called “outsider art” is that all of the people who make it are either cut off from the world (because they’re crazy) or dead. And so, a common concern in discussions of the outsider art market is exploitation. Are dealers taking advantage of artists who are alive but disabled or exploiting the estates of those who were once mentally ill and are now deceased? “Today’s new art market stars are either dead, mentally impaired, or can barely speak for themselves,” critic Christian Viveros-Faune once [wrote in the *Village Voice*](http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-07-17/art/foulkes-art/full/?ref=hyperallergic.com). ![John Brill sitting in his installation "Every Boy's Dream" at Kent Fine Art (click to enlarge)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04214.jpg) John Brill sitting in his installation “Every Boy’s Dream” (2013) at Kent Fine Art (click to enlarge) There is some truth in this, but it’s far from a universal dictum. Determining who qualifies as an “outsider” artist has become increasingly hazy in recent years. This may be due to the market’s unyielding appetite for more art to sell, which means it’s a phenomenon not without its problems, but the stretching of the definition of “outsider artist” is unequivocally a good thing: it moves us closer to erasing a distinction that many find to be a [ghettoization](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/arts/design/26rami.html?ref=hyperallergic.com). Nowhere can you feel the silliness (and yet cloying realness) of the term “outsider art” more distinctly than at the [Outsider Art Fair](http://www.outsiderartfair.com/current%5Ffair?ref=hyperallergic.com), which, by its very nature, is an [insiders’ affair](https://hyperallergic.com/going-inside-outsider-art-fair-2014/). Visiting the preview of the 2015 New York edition yesterday, I was struck by just how fluid a category it’s become. An example: At the booth of Dutch foundation [Een Nieuwe Wind](http://www.eennieuwewind.nl/?ref=hyperallergic.com) I saw a woman sitting in a wheelchair, Marianne Schipaanboord, lost in contemplation of the artwork — her artwork — lining the walls. Schipaanboord is deaf and cannot speak; another woman was trying to ask her a question or two on camera, and while Schipaanboord had been given a laminated sheet with the letters of the alphabet on it, for spelling out answers, she did not respond. Ten minutes later and I was down a flight of stairs, talking at length to artist [John Brill](http://www.kentfineart.net/artists/john-brill?ref=hyperallergic.com) about his piece “Every Boy’s Dream” (2013), at the booth of New York’s [Kent Fine Art](http://www.kentfineart.net/?ref=hyperallergic.com). Brill is an eccentric, affable man who refers to himself as “textbook anal-retentive” and simply taught himself photography. He speaks excitedly and smartly about his own work. ![Constantine Karron, "Untitled" (1940s), colored pencil on oak tag paper (click to enlarge)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04100.jpg) Constantine Karron, “Untitled” (1940s), colored pencil on oak tag paper (click to enlarge) At first the contrast between these two struck me as a glitch, a discrepancy, but the longer I thought about it, the more appropriate it seemed that outsider art should encompass both. And that both of them should be present at the fair. The biographies of artists are overwhelmingly central to the frame of outsider art, to the point where it can be problematic (they’re ripe for co-opting and historicizing), not to mention exhausting (after a certain number of wall texts that all sound the same, you start to assume mental illness and ignore them). But at the fair yesterday, I sensed an emphasis on living artists and contemporary art that, even if it was market-driven, was welcome. This isn’t to discount the historical presentations — some galleries, many of them heavy hitters, had excellent displays and stunning artworks in this vein, including a dazzling grid of pieces by Constantine Karron at [Ricco/Maresca](http://www.riccomaresca.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), fantastically cheeky collages by [Felipe Jesus Consalvos](http://www.fleisher-ollmangallery.com/artists.php?id=10&&ref=hyperallergic.com) at [Fleisher/Ollman](http://www.fleisher-ollmangallery.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), and compelling groupings of work by [Minnie Evans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie%5FEvans?ref=hyperallergic.com) and [Clementine Hunter](http://www.gilleysgallery.com/Artist-Detail.cfm?ArtistsID=672&ref=hyperallergic.com) at [Arte del Pueblo](http://www.artedelpueblo.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) and [Gilley’s Gallery](http://www.gilleysgallery.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), respectively. But it was art made in the last 10 years or so that drew me in most — proof that while the term “outsider art” may be ready for retirement, what it represents is far from dead. ![Marianne Schipaanboord with her artwork at the Een Nieuwe Wind booth](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04185.jpg) Marianne Schipaanboord with her artwork at the Een Nieuwe Wind booth (click to enlarge) ![Andrea Joyce Heimer, "When I began wearing all black in the ninth grade my parents thought I was practicing witchcraft & became convinced I was part of a teenage coven on Cottonwood Street." (2013)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04110.jpg) Andrea Joyce Heimer, “When I began wearing all black in the ninth grade my parents thought I was practicing witchcraft & became convinced I was part of a teenage coven on Cottonwood Street.” (2013), at Lindsay Gallery (click to enlarge) ![Sabhan Adam, "Untitled" (2005), mixed media on canvas, at Polad-Hardouin Gallery](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04118.jpg) Sabhan Adam, “Untitled” (2005), mixed media on canvas, at Polad-Hardouin Gallery ![Peter Thomashow, "Wired" (2014), at Marlon Harris](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04104.jpg) Peter Thomashow, “Wired” (2014), at Marlon Harris ![Manual Bauman, "Lucha Libre Diarama" at the Pardee Collection](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04149.jpg) Manual Bauman, “Lucha Libre Diarama” at the Pardee Collection ![Works by Mary F. Whitfield at Galerie Bonheur](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04155.jpg) Works by Mary F. Whitfield at Galerie Bonheur ![Mireille Delice, "Catastrophe de 12 Janvier" (c. 2010), Vodou banner (sequins and beads on fabric), at Indigo Arts Gallery](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04165.jpg) Mireille Delice, “Catastrophe de 12 Janvier” (c. 2010), Vodou banner (sequins and beads on fabric), at Indigo Arts Gallery ![Angkasapura, "Untitled" (c. 2012), mixed media on found paper, at Henry Boxer Gallery](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04141.jpg) Angkasapura, “Untitled” (c. 2012), mixed media on found paper, at Henry Boxer Gallery ![Detail of John Brill's "Every Boy's Dream" (2013) at Kent Fine Art](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04217.jpg) Detail of John Brill’s “Every Boy’s Dream” (2013) at Kent Fine Art ![Paul Laffoley, "Copenhagen Cat Paradox" (2008), at Kent Fine Art](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04221.jpg) Paul Laffoley, “Copenhagen Cat Paradox” (2008), at Kent Fine Art ![Untitled works by Susan Janow (both 2014) at Creative Growth Art Center](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04196.jpg) Untitled works by Susan Janow (both 2014) at Creative Growth Art Center ![Work by Jerry the Marble Faun in the foreground and Larry Calkins in the background, at Jackie Klempay](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04267.jpg) Work by Jerry the Marble Faun in the foreground and Larry Calkins in the background, at Jackie Klempay ![Embellished books by Martha Cruz at Healing Arts Initiative](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04247.jpg) Embellished books by Martha Cruz at Healing Arts Initiative ![Drawings by Derrick Alexis Coard at Healing Arts Initiative](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04249.jpg) Drawings by Derrick Alexis Coard at Healing Arts Initiative ![Solange Knopf, "Women and Birds (red)" (2012), colored pencil on paper, and "Spirit Codex No. 18" (2013), acrylic, colored pencil, and graphite on paper](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04231.jpg) Solange Knopf, “Women and Birds (red)” (2012), colored pencil on paper, and “Spirit Codex No. 18” (2013), acrylic, colored pencil, and graphite on paper, at Cavin-Morris Gallery ![View of the fair](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04241.jpg) View of the fair ![The booth of Rebecca Hossack Gallery ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/01/dsc04178.jpg) The booth of Rebecca Hossack Gallery *The* [*Outsider Art Fair 2015*](http://www.outsiderartfair.com/current%5Ffair?ref=hyperallergic.com)*, of which Hyperallergic is a media sponsor, continues at Center 548 (548 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan) through February 1.*