Project Ability is in Melbourne, Australia! Our Director will speak at the Contemporary Outsider Art: The Global Context conference, taking place from 23rd – 26th October, alongside artist and Project Ability friend Tanya Raabe.
“Forty years after the term ‘Outsider art’ was coined by Roger Cardinal to encompass works by untrained artists who work outside the established art world, new paradigms and definitions are being sought. The current enthusiasm for these forms of expression culminated in Massimiliano Gioni’s 2013 Venice Biennale, which dedicated several exhibits to self-taught or Outsider artists. Reviewing the Biennale in Art and America, Travis Jeppesen wrote ‘the success of Gioni’s bold production signals a move beyond ‘the contemporary’ as the default category we have relied upon for far too long’. Such comments demonstrate the timeliness of this topic and the potential for this conference to contribute to and enrich our understanding of contemporary culture at the broadest level.
The increased interest in Outsider art, however, has also raised a number of significant questions in response to which Contemporary Outsider Art: The Global Context proposes an inter-disciplinary exploration of the field, drawing on the experience and knowledge of Australian and international artists, collectors, curators and scholars. The conference comprises keynote addresses, sessions of 30-minute papers and round table discussions where presenters from different disciplines and backgrounds will engage with the topics relating to the three major themes of the conference:
// The Practices of Outsider Artists
// Collections of Outsider Art and Curated Exhibitions
// Outsider Art History and Theory”
