Outsider Art Fair

Outsider Art Fair The original art fair specific to self-taught art created outside the mainstream.

Founded by Sandy Smith in 1993, the Outsider Art Fair soon became a critical and commercial success. Recognized for its maverick spirit, the fair played a vital role in building a passionate collecting community as crowds flocked annually to New York's Puck Building, the event's original site during its first 15 years. In 2012, OAF was acquired by Wide Open Arts, a new company formed by art dealer

Andrew Edlin. Its debut edition in 2013 saw the fair relocated to Center 548 in Chelsea and included guest curatorial projects and the OAF Talks program. OAF continues its tradition of presenting top dealers with prime examples of works by both legendary and newly discovered artists. The 2013 fair enjoyed rave reviews and more than tripled previous attendance levels.

Adhemar Ahmad featured by Peninsula () at the Outsider Art Fair in 2025, is the subject of a new documentary film by Ian...
05/08/2026

Adhemar Ahmad featured by Peninsula () at the Outsider Art Fair in 2025, is the subject of a new documentary film by Ian Phillips () coming to the African Film Festival New York in May. The film tells the story of the artist’s past 20 years selling books, playing chess, and painting in upper Manhattan, and how he came to meet Peninsula owner Eric Fallen and show at the fair to great acclaim. Don’t miss “Book of Ahmad” Sat, May 16th, 12:00 PM @ Maysles Cinema. Visit africanfilmny.org for schedules and tickets.

Tomorrow is the last day to view OAF’s 2026 exhibitors on OAF Digital! Check out the link in our bio to scroll, inquire,...
04/29/2026

Tomorrow is the last day to view OAF’s 2026 exhibitors on OAF Digital! Check out the link in our bio to scroll, inquire, or purchase masterworks of Self-Taught Art, Art Brut, and Outsider Art.

Lee Godie
Untitled (Four Views of Lee), c. 1980
Unique photograph
5 x 3.75 inches
Courtesy Fleisher/Ollman

Selby Warren
Cutting Trees Near the River, 1972
Acrylic and enamel on board
24 x 25.25 inches
Courtesy Dutton Gallery

Artist Unknown
Sisters in Matching Attire, c. 1860
Hand-painted salt print
10 x 8 in/25 x 20 cm
Courtesy Keith de Lellis Gallery

Art In Brackets, a Brooklyn-based art advisory founded by Fernanda Mazzuco, has organized a terrific show up at a pop-up...
04/24/2026

Art In Brackets, a Brooklyn-based art advisory founded by Fernanda Mazzuco, has organized a terrific show up at a pop-up space at 46 Walker in Tribeca, including works by self-taught artists Madalena Santos Reinbolt, Aurelio dos Santos and Rafael Pereira. Running through April 29, the exhibition explores artistic exchanges between Africa and Brazil, bringing together works across photography, painting, sculpture, textiles, and design. Their next show, Art Sampa: Affective Compositions, will be focused on artists and galleries based in São Paulo, or with a strong connection to the city. There will be a soft opening during the week of May 4, with public dates from May 12 to May 30.

HORROR VACUI is the latest exhibition at the Treger Saint Silvestre collection - a private art brut collection on public...
04/21/2026

HORROR VACUI is the latest exhibition at the Treger Saint Silvestre collection - a private art brut collection on public view at the Centro de Arte Oliva in São João da Madeira, Portugal. HORROR VACUI features eighty-five anthropomorphic figures from the collection—including animals, machines, spirits, humans, monsters, and angels. Just one of several wonderful exhibitions at the Centro, HORROR VACUI is on view through January 2027 in a deep red space, resonating with the sound of Portuguese author Goncalo M. Tavares reading his text about the exhibition.

The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue with texts by the curator Marta Jecu and director Lara Soares .natacha.soares.

Images:

ANONYMOUS (THE BIZANGO WARRIORS)
UNTITLED, n.d.
Mixed media
83 x 33 x 13 in/ 210 x 83 x 33.5 cm

Bizango is a secret society within the Voodoo cult in Haiti. It was founded in the early 19th c by African slaves.

GUILHERMINA JÚLIA (Portugal 1909-2004)
UNTITLED, n.d.
Painted wood and recovered objects
Variable dimensions

Little is known about the life of Guilherina, who was born in the north of Portugal. She worked as a miller, she got married and lived in the same place until she was 95 years old. When she was 80, after losing her husband, she began sculpting puppets in cottonwood using an axe, knives and wood files.

POTEAU DIEUDONNÉ (Haiti, ?-2008)
UNTITLED, n.d.
Hammered metal and bicycle chain
57 x 31 x 12 in/145.5 x 79 x 29.4 cm

There is little information available about the artist. The Bosmetal method involves recycling industrial oil drums to transform the metal into sculptural pieces, using processes of burning, hammering, cutting and hand-carving with rudimentary tools.

Photos by OAF Director Elizabeth Denny

For the 34th edition of the Outsider Art Fair, 6 dealers showed their work solely online as contributors to OAF Digital....
04/17/2026

For the 34th edition of the Outsider Art Fair, 6 dealers showed their work solely online as contributors to OAF Digital. See works from these exhibitors, and more, through April 30 at the link in our bio.








Paris-based Galerie Arthur Borgnis presents a selection of European art brut, including the work of the Croatian ex-pat Janko Domsic (b. 1915; d. 1983). In the 1930s, Domsic left for France, where he is believed to have spent time in prison and worked in railway construction, ending up in the Place de Clichy where he lived in poverty. His works reflect a personal mystic spirituality, combining geometric figures such as the pentagram, the sw****ka, the dollar sign, the communist hammer and sickle, the Orthodox cross with French, Croatian, and German texts. His work is included in the collections of the Centre Pompidou (Paris, FR), the LaM (Lille, FR), and the Collection de l’Art Brut (Lausanne, CH).

Henry Boxer Gallery (London, UK) shows the work of Iranian artist Mehrdad Rashidi (b.1963; Sari, IR), alongside historical Outsider art material. After leaving Iran for Germany at 20, Rashidi began to draw later in life, doodling on any and all paper he could find; old notebooks, envelopes, receipts, and discarded advertising pamphlets. Henry Boxer Gallery debuted his work in the US at the Outsider Art Fair in 2013.

Sunshine Coast-based dealer Cathy Condon features the work of Danny Bickmore (b. 1979; Alice Springs, AUS). Raised on a cattle station outside of town, he draws from  childhood experiences of rock formations and landscapes in the desert.

New York’s Deer Gallery presents a painting by the pulp artist Albert Dennis Neville (1895-1970). Most known for his pastel portraits of glamorous starlets, Neville’s work filled the covers of Silver Screen and Screenland magazines in the 1930s, early iterations of the tabloid.

(Continued in comments)

At OAF 2026, artist and fashion designer Susan Cianciolo presented an iteration of her 25-year RUN project —RUN STORE. F...
04/10/2026

At OAF 2026, artist and fashion designer Susan Cianciolo presented an iteration of her 25-year RUN project —RUN STORE. Featuring 44+ artists— friends, family, students, and frequent collaborators, the booth recreated Cianciolo’s home studio in the spirit of a visionary artist environment.

Vogue fashion analyst and historian Laird Borrelli-Persson had this to say:

“Cianciolo said she chose the participants, who include past collaborators and former and current students, by looking around her house and asking “ ‘Who are the artists that we live with? Let me start there’. . . . ‘And what designers do I love that maybe are hard for people to get their hands on?’ I focused on every single thing [being] a one-off, too, so there was a thread between everything.” Some artists have pulled objects from their archives, others have made work for OAF. Asked what brief she gave her collaborators, Cianciolo replied: “I said I’m curating a booth in the spirit of Run Store in 2001. This surrealist kind of store was happening in an abandoned storefront… but it’s also a performance, and within that, my own interior.”

Outside of Cianciolo’s actual home and the cozy environs she’s creating at OAF, the times are fraught. Is it possible there is any resonance between then and now? Cianciolo thinks there is. The “energy of love” for those who are present and those who have passed is the connecting glue. “I personally feel that all we have right now to hold onto is like that word, L-O-V-E, that feeling, that energy. I would say that’s what this project is.”

An additional thank you to Bridget Donahue and Kiva Motnyk for all of their help in organizing this project.

On Wednesday, May 6, join the American Folk Art Museum at the Mandarin Oriental in New York City for an extraordinary ev...
04/08/2026

On Wednesday, May 6, join the American Folk Art Museum at the Mandarin Oriental in New York City for an extraordinary evening celebrating the 65th anniversary of the nation’s museum of folk and self-taught art—a milestone that coincides with the nation’s 250th anniversary.

This special occasion will honor an inspiring group of visionaries: contemporary self-taught artist vanessa german; Broadway icon, playwright, accomplished quilter, and dedicated advocate for self-taught art Harvey Fierstein; and AFAM Board President Elizabeth V. Warren, recognized for more than four decades of transformative leadership.

By purchasing a ticket or table, you provide vital support for the nation’s leading museum dedicated to folk and self-taught art. Your generosity sustains free admission for more than 60,000 visitors each year and makes possible dynamic online programs that reach tens of thousands more across the country and around the world.

Recently named the #1 art museum by readers of “Newsweek,” AFAM continues to champion the creativity and vision of self-taught artists, ensuring their stories remain central to our shared cultural narrative.

Tickets and tables are now available: https://us.givergy.com/AFAMGala2026

And don’t miss the upcoming exhibition, “Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists,” opening April 10! Featuring the work of 60 artists in AFAM’s collection, “Self-Made” examines how artists without academic training have depicted, conceptualized, and identified themselves on their own terms. Admission is always free: https://folkartmuseum.org/exhibitions/self-made

Curated by The Bronx Museum () and sponsored by WayPoint Driving School () artist Dindga McCannon transformed one of Way...
04/06/2026

Curated by The Bronx Museum () and sponsored by WayPoint Driving School () artist Dindga McCannon transformed one of WayPoint’s cars into a mobile artistic intervention titled Ode to the Bronx! for the Outsider Art Fair. The vehicle was displayed in front of the Metropolitan Pavilion throughout the run of the fair. Its design pays tribute to fifty neighborhoods of the Bronx. A third-generation Harlemite who has family history in the Bronx, McCannon frequently incorporates personal objects, photographs and ephemera to explore the histories of women, both public figures and friends who have shaped her world.

Curated by Eileen Jeng Lynch, Director of Curatorial Programs, The Bronx Museum. Sponsored by WayPoint Driving School.

Dindga McCannon
Ode to the Bronx!, 2026

OAF thanks Dindga McCannon, Harmarkhis McCannon, Abraham Axler, Eileen Jeng Lynch, and Nancy Josephson for their guidance and support.

We are saddened to have learned of the passing of artist Kevin Sampson (1954-2026). Please read the tribute by from thei...
04/02/2026

We are saddened to have learned of the passing of artist Kevin Sampson (1954-2026). Please read the tribute by from their long-time friends and dealers, Shari Cavin and Randall Morris.

“It is with grief and sadness that Cavin-Morris Gallery gives this notice of the passing of our friend Kevin Sampson, our extended family member, and one of the founding member artists of our gallery, on March 18, 2026.

Kevin Blythe Sampson was an extraordinary man and an extraordinary artist who still had very much to say when he passed.  He created his art right up to his last day.  He was just venturing out on a new exploration of sculpture after a long hiatus.  He was constructing two ships, and it was in his mind that they were metaphors for spiritual journeys and for the Middle Passage, combing as he always did, historic and contemporary narrative.  

Kevin understood art was a path through the trees, a way of redemption, an entry into the heroic and mythic aspects of the human condition.  

He was ebullient, and seeming fixedly transparent in public, but he was also mysterious and private.  He never lost his policeman’s toughness or his raw humor.  He understood everything whether he agreed with it or not.

(Continued in comments)

At the Outsider Art Fair 2026, Dutton () presented works by Adrian Jangala Robertson, marking the first time his work ha...
03/30/2026

At the Outsider Art Fair 2026, Dutton () presented works by Adrian Jangala Robertson, marking the first time his work has been shown in the U.S.

Roberston (1962, b. Papunya, Australia), joined the supported-artist studio Bindi Mwerre Anthurre Artists in Central Australia for First Nations artists living with disability in 2002, and lives in Alice Springs.

In Papunya, Adrian Jangala Robertson grew up amidst the founding fathers of the Western Desert Painting movement (artists who begun painting on board in 1971), whom he painted alongside. Adrian’s father’s country travels from west of Walungurru through Karku at Nyirrpi to Warlurkurlangu at Yuendumu. His father, Jampitjinpa, lived at Mount Doreen close to Yuendumu and later worked at Papunya as a gardener and builder. Jampitjinpa is a brother to the late Darby Ross Jampitjinpa. Adrian’s mother is the late Eunice Napangardi, a revered painter. It is her country, Yalpirakinu, that Adrian paints.

Adrian Jangala Robertson is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for contemporary Aboriginal art. In 2024, Robertson became the first Aboriginal artist to receive a triple-nomination for the prestigious Wynne, Archibald, and Sulman Prizes—an unprecedented achievement for an Aboriginal artist and in 2025, he was another Archibald Prize finalist and was included in the Mosman Prize. His works are held in prominent collections including the Artbank Collection; Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory; and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia.

.mwerre.anthurre.artists

Thank you for another fantastic Outsider Art Fair! Under the leadership of our new Director, Elizabeth Denny, OAF 2026 b...
03/26/2026

Thank you for another fantastic Outsider Art Fair! Under the leadership of our new Director, Elizabeth Denny, OAF 2026 began a new chapter. The addition of OAF Talks + Performances, which featured three panel discussions and two performances at the venue, was an unqualified success.

Our curated projects, RUN STORE by Susan Ciancolo, and “From the North: Inuit Prints and Drawings, 1959-2025” were well received by visitors and press, earning write-ups in Vogue, The New York Times, Hyperallergic, and The Observer.

The fair set a new attendance record and facilitated robust sales. Thank you to our exhibitors, visitors and sponsors, and we look forward to seeing you next year for our 35th edition!

Address

392 Broadway, 2nd Floor
New York, NY
10013

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Outsider Art Fair posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Establishment

Send a message to Outsider Art Fair:

Share

Category