CHICAGO (May 20, 2025) — In 1991, a group calling itself the Society for Outsider, Intuitive and Visionary Art declared its mission “to celebrate artists who, for one reason or another, seem motivated by a unique personal vision and demonstrate little influence from the mainstream art world,” and made its entrance into Chicago’s art scene with two exhibitions, featuring artists and perspectives now considered essential to the canon of outsider or self-taught art.
“From Chicago,” held in late September at Navy Pier, presented work by Henry Darger, Joseph Yoakum, William Dawson, Lee Godie and others. “Thrift Store Paintings,” which opened in early December, was a traveling show of secondhand art collected and curated by the L.A. artist Jim Shaw and hosted at Tony Fitzpatrick’s World Tattoo Gallery.
The group, including the artist Roger Brown, executive Cleo Wilson and her partner, publisher Bob Roth, along with gallerists Susann Craig, Carl Hammer and Ann Nathan, almost immediately changed their name to Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. But their overall vision was steadfast from the start. As Roger Brown once put it, “The real reason behind the society was the hope that eventually there could be a museum devoted to this sort of work.”
That hope has been realized as the Center reopens on May 23 as the Intuit Art Museum (IAM).
About Intuit
Intuit champions the diverse voices of self-taught art, welcoming both new and familiar audiences. Intuit presents the work of self-taught artists—also known as outsider art. These artists typically work outside the mainstream and may have faced societal, economic or geographic barriers to a traditional path of art making. By presenting a diversity of artistic voices, Intuit builds a bridge from art to audiences.
