Outsider Art / Kindred Spirits

About

Outsider Art / Kindred Spirits has been curated by award-winning charity Outside In, which works to provide a platform for artists facing significant barriers to the art world. The exhibition will run between 19 November and 6 February.

Outside In’s founder and director, Marc Steene, has selected works from the Jerwood Collection focusing on the theme of commonality, whether that is in the subject, style or technique of the artists selected. The exhibition highlights the unities between artists in the Jerwood Collection and artists currently supported by Outside In, whose works will be exhibited in a parallel exhibition drawn from the Outside In Collection. 

Marc Steene said: “Outside In’s work depends on the partnerships it forms with its artists, and the organisations it works with, to help celebrate and display the rich diversity of art too often overlooked in our society. Kindred Spirits illustrates the commonalities that bond all artists and the need to rid the art world of hierarchy and prejudice.”

Kindred Spirits is the third exhibition in the Jerwood Collection’s year-long residency at the Harley Gallery. It will feature artists who have self-identified as ‘outsiders’ and have bypassed the traditional art world journey, while others are self-taught. Many show the creativity so long hidden in our communities.

Works from the Jerwood Collection include the self-taught artist and Cornish fisherman, Alfred Wallis, who was well-known for painting seascapes from memory. It also includes the uniquely talented Edward Burra and the mystical work of Alan Davie, as well as work by artists influenced by the genre, such as Rose Wylie.

Director of The Harley Gallery, Lisa Gee said: “In these two exhibitions, contemporary artists supported by Outside In will be displayed alongside a selection of mainstream Modern British Art such as Alfred Wallis, Edward Burra, Dora Carrington."

“These artists painted without any sense of being part of an art world, yet today we know them as part of our artistic language. Kindred Spirits is a triumphant celebration of artists connected by a creativity realised outside of the mainstream and the art world at large.  This intergenerational and intercultural offering is a testament to the power of art to resonate, and to exist beyond the definition and acceptance of anyone but its maker.”