Sunday Art Dialogue

I am delighted to announce the Sunday Art Dialogue, a new weekly post in which I share thoughts, reflections and ideas across a wide range of art topics. 

Each week I hope to open up conversation, inviting you to engage, respond and share your own perspectives. Art is always richer in dialogue, and I would love you to be a part of it.

You can find each new post here on the News page, or follow along on Instagram where the conversation begins every Sunday.

Sunday Art Dialogue | Sunday 10 May

Outsider Art

This is a subject that is close to my heart and my connection to it goes back to my time spent as an art tutor/curator in Chicago. I was honoured to be able to spend time getting to know some of the local Outsider Art artists, including Mr. Imagination (Gregory Warmack) who kindly gifted me the hand sculpture seen in image 1 &2, Matt Lamb, who gave me this whimsical glass sculpture ‘The Adventurer’ seen in image 3 and the Totems of William Dawson in image 4. Visiting their artist studios was extraordinary experience especially since this art was made entirely outside institutions and outside any formal training.⁠ It sprang from the personal passion and creativity within each artist.⁠

My academic path in the UK led me there too and it was those visits in Chicago which made me seek out Roger Cardinal, (1940-2019) a British art historian and critic author the book Outsider Art (1972) and John Maizels the editor of (@rawvisionmagazine), which remains the go-to resource if you want to explore this world. Roger became my tutor when I studied with him at Canterbury University towards an MPhil and his notions of the outsider tradition have shaped how I think about creativity ever since.⁠

Cardinal’s work helped bring international attention to artists working outside the conventional art world — self-taught creators, visionaries, psychiatric patients, spiritualists, and socially marginal figures whose work was often intensely personal and independent of academic training.  ⁠

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For contemporary art discourse, Outsider Art remains both influential and debated. Some critics see the term as valuable because it highlights independent creativity; others feel it can unintentionally reinforce social marginalisation.⁠

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What are your thoughts? Is the category of outsider art meaningful to you, or does it risk keeping certain artists at arm’s length even while celebrating them? Are you an outsider artist?⁠

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