The Outsider Art Fair is not an antiques show. It is an art show that displays works by artists that are anything but academic. Outsider opened last night with a salsa band and champagne toast to Sanford Smith, who has nurtured this genre since the fair’s inception 20 years ago.

The art here comes in all shapes and sizes, from the tiniest intricately carved peach stones (see yesterday’s blog) to wall sized mixed media pieces. All, remember, by artists who have not received formal art training and whose imaginations and obsessions drive them to create out of whatever materials are available.

I saw at least two young galleriests with a uniquely contemporary and American take on art brut.  Make Skateboards, Brooklyn, NY, for instance, offered boards with artistic designs, that are both essential gear and collectibles. They also showed more traditional forms of raw art.  At Red Truck Gallery, New Orleans, Noah Antieau displayed works by seven artists he plans to follow as they mature. Among the more finished and complex pieces were works by Bryan Cunningham of Detroit, MI, whose frames incorporate beer can tabs and laces.

Noah Antieau of Red Truck Gallery, New Orleans

At Chicago based Peter Schopf Gallery, Ellen Green’s “flash gloves” are steaming hot. White gloves, those essentials of propriety, are tattooed with suggestions of sexuality and rebellion. Yes, they are todays’ featured image.

Today, the American Folk Art Museum kicks off the 20th edition of Uncommon Artists, a series of talks about timely subjects coordinated with the Fair by Lee Kogan, curator emerita.

Finally, El Museo del Barrio and the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland,

Chair, boards, art at Make Skateboards

are participating for the first time, lending a unique curatorial point of view to the entire genre.

Outsider Art Fair is a Best Bet for today, Saturday and Sunday. It’s definitely the downtown answer to the uptown scene. And, Outsider is located in midtown, at 7 W. 34th Street.