A new art exhibit in Jamestown, Rhode Island is showcasing vibrant works of outsider art. Artscape producer James Baumgartner visited the gallery and met with the curators.
After passing the reception area at the Jamestown Arts Center, you go through a small room that is filled with works that are in various shades of orange.
“The orange room was just inspired by the dead of winter,” said Casey Weibust, one of the curators of a new show, “Outsider Art: Harnessing Color.” “Wanting to brighten up this time of year and have people walk in and kind of be like blasted by the sun.”
The orange room is a burst of light that shocks the eye upon walking in. Although the pieces in that room feature one color, there’s a lot to look at, between photography, painting, weaving, and sculpture. Here’s how Casey defines outsider art.
“It’s traditionally kind of known as artists that are not formally trained in art,” she said. “So they didn’t go to art school, or, you know, they started art at a later age. … So I think, for me, it’s just really kind of like a raw, limitless way of creating art.”
After the orange room, the show continues in the main gallery space, which used to be a boat repair shop. It’s a large room with high ceilings and gigantic garage doors, and windows that let in plenty of natural light. The space is filled with dozens of artworks in bright, vibrant colors. There’s a painting of a heron done in bold bright strokes, insects made from cut pieces of paper, and boulders made from yarn climbing the walls.
In the middle of the gallery, surrounded by benches, there’s a reclining figure, about the size and shape of a person. It’s a sculpture by Cindy Gosling. Melissa Seitz is one of the other curators for the exhibition.
“I don’t want to be macabre, but it almost looks like a dead body that’s been wrapped up in lots of different yarns and strings,” she said. “You can also see that there’s a little bit of plastic wrap she used, as well as the fibers.”
It’s like a cocoon with yellow yarn fading into brown, then lavender and dark blue. There’s a bundle of yarn laying to one side, sitting there as if the artist might return to keep wrapping the piece.
Vince Ruvolo is another curator who organized the exhibition.
“There are six different arts organizations from across the East Coast,” he said. “All six organizations support adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”
The show is also a collaboration with Looking Upwards, a Middletown-based nonprofit that provides services to adults with disabilities. Seitz told me about one of their artists, Nick Chapin, who made a flower-shaped ceramic bowl stamped with various objects, including honeycombs.
“Our job and the community we work with, Looking Upwards, is very much like, we want to support people and have them live their best life,” Seitz said. “The aim of our job is to support them, but then to slowly back away and let them become independent in their community. So Nick is the perfect example where he comes here, he takes his own classes, he doesn’t come with a staff, he’s coming here on his own independently, and he’s learning a whole medium and skill. And now he’s in the show. And, you know, it’s – he’s gone on this whole journey, where he’s now an independent artist.”
“Outsider Art: Harnessing Color” is on display at the Jamestown Arts Center through April 1. There are also a couple of workshops on Saturday, March 4 where you can learn printmaking or work with one of the tabletop looms to weave yarn, as well as a panel discussion on Thursday, March 2 about artists with disabilities and their creative process.
