Returning to New York’s Metropolitan Pavilion for the 26th edition, the Outsider Art Fair is packed full of weird, wild and wonderful art. Showcasing more than 60 exhibitors from 35 cities and 7 countries, the fair is a favorite of art aficionados from all walks of life.
Topping our chart of weird works are an anonymous sculpture of a pig dressed in fine garb at Joshua Lowenfels Works of Art, surreal figurative ceramics by Japanese artist Shinichi Sawada at Jennifer Lauren Gallery, Hawkins Bolden’s scarecrow constructed from a discarded pot and some foam and fabric at Sardac, fetishistic sculptural masks by Joseph Kurhajec at Galerie Pol Lemetais and Royal Robertson’s drawing of “Proud Satan Visits Mrs. Eula Stanton” at Gilley’s Gallery.
Anonymous at Joshua Lowenfels Works of Art
Joseph Kurhajec at Galerie Pol Lemetais
Leading the list of wild things are hand-painted movie posters from Ghana at Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Minnie Evan’s colorful drawings of animals combined with people at Luise Ross Gallery, boxers and femme fatales obsessively painted on dictionaries and found objects by Richard Kurtz at Esperanza Projects, Gus George’s full-figure illustrations of pin-up girls at Fred Giampietro Gallery, clay characters capturing life on the subway by Jordan MacLachlan at Marion Harris and bathing beauties by Young Ae Joo at Korea Art Brut.
Hand-painted Movie Poster from Ghana at Ernie Wolfe Gallery
Felipe Jesus Consalves at Fleisher Ollman
Our picks for wonderful art include Felipe Jesus Consalves Pop Art collages made from cigar bands and other bits of ephemera at Fleisher/Ollman, charismatic works on paper by the self-taught modernist Janet Sobel at James Barron Art, an amusing installation of surreal figures paintings by Mose Tolliver at Shrine that includes an unmade bed (Tolliver’s favored place to paint) and trippy color pencil drawings of figures and forms by Alex Xatkevich at Henry Boxer Gallery and Henry Speller at Tops Gallery.
Janet Sobel at James Barren Art
Mose Tolliver at Shrine
Overflowing with all sorts of delightful and truly bizarre works of art—along with special projects like artist Saya Woolfalk’s merging of her imaginative artwork with objects from Eddie Owens Martin’s (aka St. EOM) visionary environment Pasaquan—this year’s Outsider Art Fair continues at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York through Sunday, January 21, 2018.
Paul Laster is a writer, editor, independent curator, artist, and lecturer. He is a New York desk editor at ArtAsiaPacific and a contributing editor at artBahrain. He is a contributor writer to Time Out New York, New York Observer, Modern Painters, Cultured Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Galerie Magazine, ArtPulse, Glasstire and ConceptualFineArts.com → Click here for more. ←