The Outsider Art Fair returns with a refreshing collection of works—embracing ceramics—while underscoring the vital role of centers that support artists, including disabled adults, in fostering genuine creative communities.
By: MoCA/NY
March 2, 2025
Metropolitan Pavilion 125 W 18th Street New York, NY
The Outsider Art Fair (OAF), the premier event dedicated to self-taught art, art brut, and outsider art, returns for its 33rd edition at the Metropolitan Pavilion from February 27 to March 2. This year, 66 exhibitors from 40 cities across nine countries presented works that challenge conventional boundaries, offering a deeply personal and often unfiltered view of creativity.
Yet, for all its international scope, the fair remains warmly intimate. The atmosphere is less about polished spectacle and more about tactile discovery, an antidote to the often slick and hyper-curated presentations of the contemporary art market. Here, embroidery sits alongside felting; jewelry, prints, woodwork, and masks. Long relegated to the margins of fine art, clay's presence here feels particularly apt. Once dismissed as craft, ceramics now finds itself squarely in, embraced with an enthusiasm that feels all the more natural within the context of a fair that celebrates art untethered from traditional hierarchies.
Andrew Edlin Gallery Installation at the Outsider Art Fair
Samuel Sarmiento | El Anatsui’s Red Textile over a collective exhibition of South American ceramists | 2023 | Pigment and glaze on stoneware and gold | 15.25 x 10.25 x 7.75 | Photo Courtesy: Samuel Sarmiento
Samuel Sarmiento | El Anatsui’s Red Textile over a collective exhibition of South American ceramists | 2023 | Pigment and glaze on stoneware and gold | 15.25 x 10.25 x 7.75| Photo Courtesy: Andrew Edlin Gallery
Samuel Sarmiento | Untitled (list) | 2023 | Pigment and glaze on stoneware and gold | 9.5 x 10.5 x 1.25 in | Photo Courtesy: Samuel Sarmiento
Samuel Sarmiento | Untitled (list) | 2023 | Pigment and glaze on stoneware and gold | 9.5 x 10.5 x 1.25 in | Photo Courtesy: Samuel Sarmiento
