A Group Show of Outsider Art at Nina Johnson Gallery
Archival treasures from folk luminaries and anonymous artists alike are presented at Nina Johnson Gallery. Curated by John Ollman, “Masters of Self-Taught Art” is an impressive collection of stirring outsider art, including over 50 small objects and framed 2-D artworks. William Edmonson’s Triple Doves (c.1940) is a poetic sculpture made of Tennessee limestone, juxtaposed with Bill Traylor’s Untitled (Man with Blue Pants and Cane) (c.1939/41), a whimsical work of poster paint and pencil on found paper. A Philadelphia wireman’s untitled sculpture of lamp parts and reflectors circa 1970-75 is an eerie, mechanical figure, placed in compelling conversation with Felipe Jesus Consalvos’s The Peanut Vendor (c. 1920-1960s), a double-sided masterpiece of collage on paper, utilizing art to unearth America’s intricate history of oppression and consumerism, intensified by an ever-evolving media-centric culture.
Felipe Jesus Consalvos, “The Peanut Vendor,” c. 1920–1960s, Collage on paper, double-sided 50 × 291⁄4 inches; courtesy of Nina Johnson Gallery.
