The Inuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art

Marriage, Lubos Plny

Merchandise Mart, eighth floor; art.org/intuitshow

Chicago’s relationship to outsider art is rich enough for the city to claim being its center. The connection begins with Jean Dubuffet’s 1951 speech at the Arts Club, where he made the case for Art Brut (or Raw Art). Then there is Henry Darger, the reclusive janitor who left behind a major stash of mural-size watercolors of little girls in his Lincoln Park apartment when he died in 1973. One of his pieces went for $80,000 at an auction a few years back.

A group of local artists began collecting this outsider art, and that’s partly how Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art got started as a nonprofit in 1991. Previous shows took place in a West Loop warehouse, but the Mart allows Intuit room for more dealers, and space to host a lecture series with speakers such as Jane Kallir of New York’s pioneering Galerie St. Etienne, who will talk about Darger at 4pm Sunday 29.

Oakland Dog, Jim Bauer

“This is the first time that an outsider-art fair is included in an international art exhibition of mainstream art,” says Dan Berger, an Intuit board member. Besides being good exposure for Intuit, the Mart show will be a step forward for outsider art. “It seems that every time there is an event like this, some new artists are discovered and brought to the public,” says Susann Craig, one of Intuit’s founding members. Berger says he is looking forward to some of the newer discoveries like Morris Jackson and a young artist named James Allen, who draws very detailed trains. The Lindsay Gallery from Columbus, Ohio, represents Jackson, whose obsessive ink drawings of whimsical worlds are so detailed, a magnifying glass hangs next to each work. Gallery owner Duff Lindsay says Jackson’s works go for about $475. “What’s great about Intuit is you can find work at all price ranges. I know in my booth alone, there will be work from $275 to $60,000,” Lindsay says. And the $60,000 piece? It’s a painting by William Hawkins, one of the Old Masters of outsider art.

House-shaped Robot, Terao Katsuhiro

Hot tip For an additional $10, check out the Q&A with Mr. Imagination, the self-taught Chicago bottle-cap artist, on Saturday 28 at 4pm.

Champagne preview benefit, Thu 26, 5–8pm, 312-243-9088, $125–$500; Fri, Sat 11am–7pm; Sun 11am–6pm; Mon 11am–4pm

Photo: Joseph Desler Costa

James Cahn, local collector
Cahn plans to stop at local galleries Rhona Hoffman and Kavi Gupta, as well as New York’s Jack Shainman and PPOW galleries. “Shainman’s entire stable of artists is strong,” Cahn says. “I hope PPOW brings work from the estate of artist David Wojnarowicz—he was an important part of the ’80s Village scene, and a work by him was one of the first things I acquired.”—Audrey Mast