This Week's Outsider Art Fair Offers A Range of Spectacular Artistic Visions, From Spiritual to Nightmarish

https://www.outsiderartfair.com/new-york

The Outsider Art Fair, the only fair dedicated to Self-Taught Art, Art Brut and Outsider Art, and in its 27th New York edition, takes place January 17-20, 2019, at The Metropolitan Pavilion. The fair showcases 67 exhibitors, representing 37 cities from 7 countries, with 8 first-time galleries.

Highlights:

 - LA's The Good Luck Gallery (booth 26), the only commercial space on the West Coast dedicated to showing Self-taught art including Outsider, Folk and Visionary work, will show a rare William Hawkins work not seen in decades, and other discoveries. 

Born in Kentucky in 1895, William Hawkins is a self-taught artist who was active in the Columbus, Ohio area for most of his life. He began his painting career in the 1930s, experimenting with house paint on found wood, using images from both pop culture media and his own photography as inspiration for his fantastical pieces. His expressionist paintings are marked by his broad, painterly brushstrokes enlivened by his bold color palettes. He chose subjects from his own life as sources for his spiritual, almost surreal paintings. For most of his life, Hawkins supported himself by working a wide range of laborious jobs; his series of animals reflect his time working on a farm breaking horses. He is promoted by the Foundation for Self Taught Artists and his work is featured in the permanent collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York.

SHOWN: William Hawkins, Untitled, c. early 1980’s, enamel on wood paneling, 40 x 48”. The Good Luck Gallery.

 - Humbaba Fine Arts (booth 24) is featuring the paintings of ROBERT KIPPUR 1944 - 2015. Robert Kippur, an art school reject, was completely self-taught. He was born in 1944 and lived in isolation in Chelsea, New York. His temper left him with no friends and estranged from his family. In solitude, he was tormented by crippling nightmares and expressed these nightmares and feelings of isolation through his art.

- Steven S. Powers will show works from his 98-page online catalog, FINDING NORTH, which can be viewed at stevenspowers.com 

An exciting discovery is the eleven works by MW Demorest as an inmate at The Kansas State Insane Asylum at Osawatomie. The drawings and letters date to and around 1892 and provide a rare insight into early institutional art.