Martin Wilner:

Wilner grew up in New York City. His academic background includes a concentration in English literature as an undergraduate at Columbia College; medicine at New York University; and psychiatry at the Payne Whitney Clinic/Weill Cornell Medical College. He is also a Scholar in Psychoanalysis at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. Wilner is a self-taught artist whose work reflects his involvement with the human psyche, popular culture, and comic strip art. His artistic practice is intertwined deeply with his career as a psychoanalyst. Wilner’s ongoing project, The Case Histories, are analytic works made during one calendar month, with daily communication with an individual reimagined as a rectangular drawing (sometimes in color) corresponding to that date on a calendar grid. As the month progresses, so does the image, growing into a curious visual study of the person being analyzed. 

The project BravinLee will show at the fair is related to his work with the space scientists and artists of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute that he worked with during an artist residency in 2015-16. This is exciting and especially timely work as advances in space science technology and artificial intelligence are leading humanity into a radical reimagining of our place in the cosmos and the meaning of consciousness. Following his experiences with the SETI scientists, he invited CHAT-GPT4 to participate as a subject in The Case Histories. We are very pleased to include this fascinating work at the Outsider Art Fair because there might be nothing as outsideresque as the search for extraterrestrial life or AI, an ostensibly non-conscious emulation of human memory and intellect.

Charles Ritchie:

Charles Ritchie’s drawings take on the feeling of aestheticized surveillance. His interior/exterior subjects, the suburban plots of grass, trees and foliage, streetlights, shadows, reflections and neighboring homes are mostly depicted in the dark or in early morning light. For the last 40 years, Ritchie has been drawing the interior of his home and the adjacent homes on his quiet little cul de sac in Silver Spring Maryland, primarily from a small desk facing out a window. His primary media are watercolor, pen and ink, graphite, various chalks, charcoals and crayons, and most recently acrylic paint. His drawings and journals are constructed over extended periods, months and years. Variation in size, shape, edge, surface, and technique are critical issues for him. Ritchie works them for years at a time, building up layers of pigment on paper and breaking them back down with erasures and revisions. The surfaces evolve over these extended periods leaving pentimenti, a history of growth, while suggesting apparitions in the evaporating and reconstituting elements

Robert Forman

Robert Forman’s work is produced using various yarns, threads and strands of linen, silk cotton and rayon. He glues these onto panels, creating a dense complex overlay of images. His interest in this method began in high school when he discovered he could incorporate his mother’s embroidery threads into collage. For years, however, he was made to feel that yarn was not a legitimate art technique. In the early 1990’s Forman learned that the Huichol Indians of Northern Mexico had a tradition of creating yarn paintings, In 1992, he travelled to Mexico as a Fulbright Scholar to meet with them.

Artist Statement:
Exploring the interplay between self and surroundings, my art delves into diverse cultures and everyday experiences, merging layers of history, religion, and personal reflection. Employing the meticulous process of gluing thread to board, I shape forms and textures that vividly express my ideas. My intent is to create a lasting impact that resonates with viewers well beyond their encounter with my work.

Artist C.V.