August 21 2020     #178

Paris Outsider Art Fair 2020: Dates announced

Paris Outsider Art Fair will take place October 22–25, 2020, at Atelier Richelieu. Tickets will be €10 if booked in advance (€15 at the door), €25 for a three-day pass (€30 at the door) or €50 for a vernissage ticket (€55 at the door).

Atelier Richelieu, Paris

Information about participating galleries and exhibitors is to follow at outsiderartfair.com/paris.

American Folk Art Museum: Reopening August 28

The American Folk Art Museum, New York, will reopen to the public on Friday, August 28, with Member preview days on August 26 and August 27. The new opening hours are 11:30 AM – 6:00 PM, Wednesday through to Sunday.

To maintain capacity levels and per the guidelines provided by the State of New York, all visitors will be required to have a ticket to enter the Museum’s galleries; admission is free.

American Folk Art Museum, New York

The museum will continue to offer opportunities to engage online with new programs, concerts, and art-making activities. All virtual programs are free with optional suggested donations to support ongoing programming. A continually updated schedule is available on the museum’s website.

When the museum reopens, American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection and Six Decades Collecting Self-Taught Art will be on view. 

Memories of the Veteran, Nick Quijano Torres, 1984. Lacquered gouache on paper, 31 x 31 cm (12  × 12 in.)

"American Perspectives, which has been extended through January 3, 2021, features powerful visual narratives that offer firsthand testimony to chapters in the unfolding story of America from its inception to the present." 

"Six Decades Collecting Self-Taught Art presents diverse and powerful works from artists including Horace Pippin, Judith Scott, Henry Darger, Minnie Evans, and Edward Hicks."

All exhibitions are free with museum admission. 

Fountain House Gallery live online event: Why Art is Essential in the Post-Covid Era

Fountain House Gallery is hosting a Zoom panel discussion exploring the relationship between art, mental health and healing. It will be moderated by Jing Cheng, member of Other Content on Wednesday, August 26 at 12PM EST.

The panelists include: Jessica Shiel, Arts and Health Manager at Vital Arts, Marygrace Berberian, Clinical Assistant Professor & Director of the NYU Art Therapy in Schools Program, Ikuko Acosta, Director of the NYU Graduate Art Therapy Program, and Susan Spangenberg, Fountain House Gallery artist, writer, and actor.

#100NHSrooms on Instagram, a project by Vital Arts to bring art into hospitals

Vital Arts is an arts organization within Barts Health NHS Trust which works on art projects that support hospital patients and staff.

NYU’s Graduate Art Therapy Program was one of the first of five programs to receive approval and accreditation from the American Art Therapy Association, which promotes art therapy as an "integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship." 

Wet Market Bat Ballet, Spangenberg 2020. Enamel, acrylic, thread, marker on altered canvas, 27.9 × 35.6 cm (11 × 14 in.)

Susan Spangenberg is an untrained, self-taught artist. She also has a YouTube channel, under the name Shyla Idris.

"She did not talk or communicate effectively for much of her life and that left art as the only healing tool in her very silent world. Susan likes to incorporate her psychiatric meds, messages from her late twin brother, sewing, writing, and her beloved cat Cray Cray into her artwork. She paints on the floor."

"Becoming KALI Susan Spangenberg", filmed and edited at Issues Gallery NYC

"Susan prefers to create alone, in self-isolation. Her work is highly narrative, diaristic and autobiographical. She uses art to cope with the symptoms of her mental illness. Susan never knows what she will work on next. She goes wherever her mood takes her."

My Worst Nightmare, Spangenberg, 1997. Acrylic on canvas board, 61 × 91.4 cm (24 × 36 in.)

Find more information about the live talk on Fountain House's Facebook page and Instagram. Access the event on Zoom on August 26 at 12PM EST by clicking here.

Art in quarantine: Ody Saban

We caught up with artist Ody Saban to hear how the global pandemic has been affecting her work. Born in Istanbul in 1953, she has lived in France since 1977. Ody's art will be featured in the Paris Outsider Art Fair 2020 by La Pop Galerie from Nice, France.

"ODY SABAN Les jardins de Lilith", documentary by Sylvie Groschatau

"In January the coronavirus arrived in France and from March 17 until May 11, we were in lockdown."

"Right at the start of pandemic, I created a watercolour called 'Amabié' to protect myself, those around me and the whole world. According to Japanese legend, 'Amabié' is an anthropomorphic 3-legged yōkai, who emerges from the sea and prophesies an epidemic. Like a talisman."

Amabié, Saban, 2020. Watercolours, black Chinese ink on paper, 18.30 x 24.5 cm (7 x 10 in.)

"I continued my creation in watercolours. For several years I created a series of large watercolours on the tissue paper of 116 x 148 cm called 'Assemblies of women'."

"During Covid-19, I created another watercolour in this series. I associated it with a letter that I invented and I called the letter 'Kus'. The piece is called: 'In an assembly of women, a woman proposes to play with the letter Kus'."

In an assembly of women, a woman proposes to play with the letter Kus, Saban, 2020. Watercolour on tissue paper, 116 x 148 cm (45 x 58 in.)

"Then I continued with other watercolours, for example: 'On Lilith's throat and hand, Kus on their tips' and 'The letter Kus, which has become a bird, changes the language of lovers'."

"At the moment, I continue to create my unique artist's book 'Walk straight to love'. And I continue with my watercolour friezes 'Assembly of women' which can be seen at the Les Yeux Fertiles gallery in Paris."

Walk straight to love, Saban, 2020. Acrylic, India ink on cardboard folder. Cardboard, plastic doll, plant elements, fabrics, thread, raffia, buttons, open book width: 55 x 11 cm (22 x 4 in.); surface area: 38 x 64 x 35 cm (15 x 25 x 14 in.)

"I have also been drawing with India ink – I always work on handmade paper."

"A large exhibition in which I was going to participate with many of the large canvases in November 2020, 'Psychédélices' at the International Museum of Modest Arts in Sète, France, is postponed for October 2021."

Covid 19 is not approaching, Saban, 2020. India ink on fine Hindu paper, 35 x 48.5 cm (14 x 6 in.)

Read more about Ody in Raw Vision #27 and on her website: odysaban.free.fr. See her profiles from Collection de l'Art Brut Lausanne, The American Visionary Art Museum, Henry Boxer Gallery and Jennifer Lauren Gallery.

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issue #106 now!

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Raw Vision #106 features: Gwyneth Rowlands, Joe Coleman, Patrick Hackleman, Jean-Marc Renault, Nellie Mae Rowe, Monique Mercerat, Albert and La Fabuloserie.