This year’s edition returns to the Metropolitan Pavilion with 68 exhibitors, smuggled Iranian pastels, a fashion shop, and a 40 percent surge in demand.
Outsider art has always had its devotees, but the 34th edition of the Outsider Art Fair, returning to the Metropolitan Pavilion March 19 through March 22, works at a different scale. Attendance surged by 40 percent last year. The vast majority of those visitors were first-timers. This year brings 68 exhibitors, a new fair director, Elizabeth Denny, 13 debuting galleries, and two programming firsts: live performances and an outsider fashion shop. Self-taught art, long sidelined by the mainstream, is pulling a crowd.
OAF owner Andrew Edlin shares a theory on outsider art’s allure. “The artists who are being shown were not making the work for the most part for an audience,” he says. “It’s more personal, it’s more autobiographical. And you know, I always thought that the more personal something is, the more universal. We can just relate to it.”