August 1-7th 2004 sees the birth of a brand new Raw Arts Festival. This is London's first to focus solely on Outsider Art. Raw or Outsider art includes Folk/Intuitive/Marginalised/Self-taught/Visionary art. The festival aims to bring together both organisations and artists in the Outsider art field. It also aims to give each participant good value for money by providing a cheap entry fee and a reasonable space to exhibit their art. The festival has thus already booked at least twenty artists to exhibit art at the festival. The table below details the artists exhibiting art and organisations involved with the exhibition so far.
Name of artist (Surnames listed alphabetically)
Dover Abrams (U.S.A)
Lorenzo Belenguer (U.K)
Claude Bolduc (Switzerland)
Lyle Carbajal (USA)
Valeria Dimitrova (Israel)
Nathan Eley (U.K)
Artur Golacki (Poland)
Ann Koi (U.S.A)
Oleg Korolev (Ukraine)
Klaus Lange (U.S.A)
Andrew Lewandowski (U.S.A)
Jay Marvin (U.S.A)
Piers Midwinter (U.K)
Kelly Moore (U.S.A)
Karl Mullen (U.S.A)
Tony O'Brien (U.K)
Clifton Reddie (U.K)
Ody Saban (France)
Jason Soles (U.S.A)
Paula Sousa (U.K)
Brian Steimel (U.S.A)
Tom Willer (U.K)
Ben Young (U.K)
Mary Zeman (U.S.A)
Organisations involved:
Catalyst Studios (U.S.A)
St. John-at-Hackney Community Space Centre (U.K)
As you can see the majority of these artists are both well known and respected Outsider artists. These artists come from France, Israel, Poland, Switzerland, U.K, Ukraine and U.S.A etc. This will make the festival a truly international event.
The festival will be held at the Candid Arts Trust. The organiser of the festival has hired the Candid Arts Trust independently and has acquired both the ground and first floor gallery spaces. The two galleries have enough space to hang approximately 40 artists work. So the Raw Arts Festival is set to become the largest and purest exhibition of Outsider Art ever mounted in London to date.
Candid has had many years of experience in organising exhibitions and has run over 20 major Art and Design Fairs at both the Chelsea Town Hall and the Business Design Centre. The Trust organises mixed shows for Art & Design Graduates in order to provide graduates with more exposure and the opportunity to sell their work, gain commissions and employment. It is hoped that holding the Raw Arts Festival at the Candid Arts Trust will provide exhibiting participants with a similar level of exposure and opportunity.
The Trust has a café next door which helps to create an informal and relaxed atmosphere. The gallery also benefits from the vibrant Angel market nearby. There will be a series of Outsider Art events being held throughout the festival private view day including artist workshops. If you want to participate in an event on the private view day then please the festival organiser. Ideas can range from: workshops, speech on Outsider Art, presentations about organisations etc.
Piers Midwinter is an artist, creator and director of Raw Art Link (www.rawartlink.com) and the Raw Arts Festival (www.rawartsfestival.co.uk). For information on the Candid Arts Trust, please visit: www.candidarts.com
The festival is open to the general public: Tuesday 3rd-6th August 2004 10-6 p.m
VENUE
Candid Arts Trust
3 Torrens Street
London EC1V 1NQ
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