EDGEWALKERS: SACRED AND PROFANE
(April 6 - May 27, 2023)
There is a general free-form consensus as to what Art Brut is. There is a similar consensus regarding what Mainstream is as well. Both evade a hard definition. Nothing is pure and it is ultimately because of those impurities that that the fires of creativity are fed.
There is, however, little or no consensus or discussion about the large body of artwork that is neither Art Brut nor responds in any intentional way to the mainstream agenda other than sidestepping it, ignoring it, or living in honest unawareness of its existence. Some artists are trained academically, some are not. Most tend to visionary content, whether spiritual or social. Some are not unaware of the art world. This exhibition, Edgewalkers: Sacred and Profane focuses on a limited selection of artists whose creativity, despite categories, we find compelling.
We do not seek a brand or a definition for these artists. Their work speaks eloquently for itself. It is not a school or a trend or a movement. True, some have been previously semi- branded as Neuve Invention or Singulier in Europe, and in America lumped into the Outsider corral. They deserve better. If the recent leaning in this field has been toward inclusion into Contemporary Art howbeit with different intentionalities in its process and/or functions, then it is all the more important that the presence of these artists be recognized and accepted for who and what they are. All of the artists in this exhibition are living and actively creating with one exception.
If we see Art Brut as one intersecting circle and the Mainstream as another, we can see these artists as existing in that no-man’s land in the center. They are on the fringes of Art Brut on one side and the fringes of the Mainstream Art world on the other. They are Edgewalkers in every sense of the word.
Included in the exhibition are JJ Cromer, Shane Drinkwater, Sarvian Farsian, William Fields, Tony Fitzpatrick, Kriangkrai Kongkhanun, Franck Lundangi, Izabella Ortiz, Simone Pelligrini, Evelyne Postic, Frances Smokowski, and Miroslav Tichý. They are not Outsiders. They are vitally connected to this world, whether spiritually, socially, or politically.
Gallery Note: We have borrowed and slightly embellished the word Edgewalker from the self-taught scholar Linda Schele who helped translate the Mayan hieroglyphs. She felt that being an Edgewalker as a scholar helped her avoid the academic constraints on radical thought. Without a pigeonhole on her own title, she found intellectual freedom. We see these artists in a very similar way. They need recognition, not limiting definitions or titles.
