Art Against the Flow Summit
Artists Marvin Tate, Faheem Majeed, Della Wells and Dr. Charles Smith captivated Summit audiences. Photo by Cheri Eisenberg
In support of Intuit’s Art Design Chicago exhibition, Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow, Intuit proudly presented the Art Against the Flow Summit on November 1–3, 2018, at Intuit and the Ace Hotel Chicago.
The Summit provided a forum for the various constituents of outsider art–artists, educators, curators, dealers, collectors, students and general appreciators–to contribute to the conversations, panels and programming surrounding the role of place in the artistic output from a wide spectrum of artists.
Please use this page as a reference with video recordings, images and resources from the Art Against the Flow Summit.
In support of Intuit’s Art Design Chicago exhibition, Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow, Intuit proudly presented the Art Against the Flow Summit on November 1–3, 2018, at Intuit and the Ace Hotel Chicago.
The Summit provided a forum for the various constituents of outsider art–artists, educators, curators, dealers, collectors, students and general appreciators–to contribute to the conversations, panels and programming surrounding the role of place in the artistic output from a wide spectrum of artists.
Please use this page as a reference with video recordings, images and resources from the Art Against the Flow Summit.
Keynote Address and Summit Kickoff
Kenneth Burkhart and Lisa Stone, co-curators of Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow, were joined by Chicago We Own It curator William Swislow to kick off the Summit in a keynote address.
Speakers
Kenneth Burkhart (independent curator, New York), Lisa Stone (curator, Roger Brown Study Collection of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago), William Swislow (writer; art collector; lecturer, Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Chicago)
Chicago & Self-taught Art
This conversation delved into the fabric of the City of Chicago with Richard Cahan and Lynne Warren in a conversation examining how cultural conditions lent support to the development and acceptance of new art forms.
Moderator
Richard Cahan (author and publisher, Chicago)
Speakers
Nicholas Lowe (curator, Goat Island Archive and Roger Brown La Conchita CA Collection; associate professor of historic preservation, School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Lynne Warren (curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago)
Re-visiting Jean Dubuffet’s renowned 1951 “Anti-Cultural Positions” lunchtime lecture at the Arts Club of Chicago
A discussion on Jean Dubuffet’s seminal text “Anti-cultural Positions,” was delivered at The Arts Club in 1951, which elucidated his groundbreaking approach to auteurs—Dubuffet’s term for Art Brut artists.
Speaker
Edward M. Gómez (journalist; author; critic; curator)
Beyond Chicago: Place Influencing Artists and Artists Influencing Place
This panel served as a forum for European partners and a U.S.-based educator to discuss the role of locale in influencing how non-mainstream artists flourished and created—and how their creative output may have impacted those regions where concentrations of artists were embraced and celebrated.
Moderator
Debra Kerr (executive director, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art)
Speakers
Edward M. Gómez (journalist; author; critic; curator), Hans Looijen (director, Outsider Art Museum, Amsterdam), Jerry Stefl (arts educator and board education committee co-chair, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art)
Chicago We Own It: Style and Sensibility in Chicago Collections
This discussion explored space, place and collectors’ personalities as expressed in collections of art in and around Chicago.
Moderator
William Swislow (writer; art collector; lecturer, Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Chicago)
Speakers
Patric McCoy (collector; founder and president, Diasporal Rhythms), Michael Noland (artist and art collector), Jan Petry (art collector; former exhibitions chair and then board president, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art), Cleo Wilson (art collector; founder, former executive director, and past board president, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art).
Artists of our Time
In this conversation, non-mainstream artists discussed personal and social aspects of their work.
Moderator
Faheem Majeed (artist and curator)
Speakers
Dr. Charles Smith (artist), Marvin Tate (artist), Della Wells (artist)
Future of the Genre: What’s next?
Panelists discussed how they embraced non-mainframe work and whether or how they committed more fully to the inside/outside conversation. They also discussed how the market had impacted the representation of non-mainstream artists.
Moderator
Leisa Rundquist (associate professor of art history, University of North Carolina, Asheville)
Speakers
Laura Bickford (assistant curator, John Michael Kohler Arts Center), Carl Hammer (gallerist, Carl Hammer Gallery), Randy Vick (professor of art therapy, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Jenenne Whitfield (chief executive officer, The Heidelberg Project)
