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this week in outsider art includes quilts and rugs from the south to iran, a bird on a cat, a featured artist and a first time work debuting in the states at the outsider art fair

Feb 04, 2024

THIS WEEK IN OUTSIDER ART

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**MARILENA PELOSI** Untitled (2010) // Crayon & pencil; both 4.25 × 5.95 inches via *Henry Boxer Gallery*

**BILL TRAYLOR** Untitled (Man Walking Dog) (c. 1939) // Pencil on found cardboard (Chipso dish soap box); 8 x 11 inches via *The Keen Collection*

a 1979 quilt by **Lucy Mingo** of Gee's Bend, Alabama // nine-patch center block surrounded by pieced strips

**CC (Alireza Asbahi)** Untitled (c. 2019-2023) // Fabric, marker on found rug; 26.5 x 43.5 inches / 67.3 x 110.5 cm via *Cavin-Morris Gallery*

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**NELLIE MAE ROWE** I Will Sea you Later When I get My Self Back To Geather (1982) // Crayon, pen, and pencil on paper; 9 1/2 x 7 inches via *High Musuem of Art*

**CLYDE HENRY** Cats (date unknown) // Embroidery on handkerchief via *Center For Creative Works*

**BARRY COLPITTS** Spotted Cat with Blue Bird (date unknown) // Polychromed wood; 5.5" H x 8.5" L x 2.5" W (approx.) via *Black Sheep Gallery*

**SARAH LEE** She fed him custard all day everyday and he ate it gladly… (c. 2022-2023) // Acrylic painting on canvas paper -- *available for purchase via the artist in the FolkArtwork Collective shop*

**ROSIE CAMANGA** Untitled (7--11 Good Luck) (c. 1950-60) // Ink on paper; 11 × 13 3/4 in | 27.9 × 34.9 cm via *Ricco/Maresca Gallery*

MARIA CAMACHO Cat (n.d.) // Mixed Media on paper; 22" x 28" via *Pure Vision Arts*

**SHINICHI SAWADA** Untitled (176) (c. 2010) // Wood fired ceramic; 20x20x36cm, 7.9x7.9x14.2 inches via *Jennifer Lauren Gallery*

**FRIEDRICH SCHRODER-SONNENSTERN** Die wendumb (1948)

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FEATURED ARTIST OF THE WEEK

**DINAH** Cherry Tomato (2023) // Acrylic on Canvas; 16"x20" courtesy *the artist*.

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WATCHING AND READING

Here are a few things I’ve been reading this past week:

Here are a few things I’ve been watching this past week:

OH WORD?

As we get closer and closer to the Outsider Art Fair, more exhibitors are highlighting which works of art and which artists they will be showing at the fair. For someone like me, and hopefully you, since my children are tired of me telling them, this is very exciting.

It’s always a pleasure to Jennifer Gilbert of Jennifer Lauren Gallery in New York, and this year will be no different. I’m excited to see the Shinichi Sawada works she will have and the embroidery works by Valerie Potter, among many more treasures.

This year, for the first time, the works of Catherine Garrigue will be exhibited in the United States, debuting at the Outsider Art Fair.

**Catherine Garrigue,** Grande métamorphose, 2021, (Great Metamorphosis), Fountain pen and acrylic paint on card, 46x69.3cm, 18x27.2 inches via *Jennifer Lauren Gallery*

Catherine Garrigue (born 1954; Paris) has always had a passion for drawing. Her work is spontaneous and connects with her inner feelings and emotions: “It is the beauty of the mystery of creation”, believing her work to be research into the mystery of the soul. She claims that traumas in her life come through on the paper and it is her way of dealing with them: creating something like a journal, chapters in a book, following a specific theme from her subconscious for long periods until she feels it is complete: “Like words, these subjects helped me uncover elements from the attic of my memory, shedding light on my subjectivity, even my consciousness or, more precisely, my soul”. Catherine works mainly with blue and black fountain pens, stating the theme chooses the colour. Starting by tracing lines on the page, she aims for the utmost automatism with distorted figures and faces emerging alongside flowers, plants, and birds.

These visionary works, a recent award winner under the category “inspiration from dreams and visions,” are incredibly detailed and mesmerizing and will surely be a show-stopper at this year’s fair. Her work is in several European collections, including the College of Psychic Studies and the Collection of Mediumistic, and will likely be quickly making its way into a new private collection here stateside soon.

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SHOUT OUT

**WILLIAM HAWKINS** Columbus Skyline (1988) // Enamel and collage on wood and sheet metal construction via *Figge Art Museum*

Shout out to this work by William Hawkins, still one of the most incredible works of art by Hawkins I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot!

“This sculpture depicts three structures whose construction resembles the Vern Riffe State Office building in Columbus, Ohio. There is a painting of Lady Liberty in red, black, and white on the reverse and collage elements on sides.”

Hawkins (1895–1990) was a self-taught artist whose work began receiving acclaim in the 1980s after winning first prize at the Ohio State Fair. A handyman who worked odds-and-ends jobs, he frequently used various media, including discarded materials, to create his paintings. Nearly every one of his works created a geometric border with multiple colors in his signature, “William Hawkins Born KY July 27 1895”.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

The Poison Of The Lying Tongues, **Bessie Harvey** (1987), Found wood, cowrie shells, plastic beads, nails, and paint 19 x 14.5 x 18 inches via *Souls Grown Deep Foundation;* Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio

Meet Bessie Harvey, an African-American artist born in Georgia at the start of the Great Depression. Her sculptures consist of branches, roots, and found objects that embody spirituality, she is a deeply religious person and speaks about life’s challenges as she spent most of her life in poverty and faced constant oppression, even when she started getting noticed as an artist.

Later this month, you can read about “13 Black Folk Artists from the American South” in an article I wrote that will be published in DailyArt Magazine. Stay tuned!

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

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