Breaking Through: Pitching Outsider Art in Today's America
Inspiration and a practical guide.
The messy truth is that true artistic disruption feels more vital—and more endangered—than ever as we are fed a stream of reconstructed truths in our everyday lives through aggressive political and cultural propaganda. Personally, my soul is crying out for the raw vulnerability and truth that only outsider art and fringe voices can deliver. The struggle is how to pierce through the white noise, gather energy to create work and then, actually get it noticed.
Getting in front of decision makers can be intimidating. Here’s what we’ve learned over the years about breaking through–and into–established professional arts institutions and galleries. We can go back to the foundations and start there—regroup in a sense.
We’ll begin with inspiration from artists who have already paved the way, and end with tips and a playbook on how to reach out to galleries. Adjust the frameworks at the end of this article as needed. Push boundaries, grow and claim your space in the art world and collective conversation.
Outsider Art: Now More Than Ever
Looking around, our political landscape is a mess and our everyday life is steeped in an undercurrent of exhaustion and thirst for connection with like-minded people. Fellow fringe underground artists have the potential to provide comfort, kinship and anchor our realities to something authentic, unbiased, and stable. I crave inspiration daily as a creative director, and think back to inspiring revolutionaries even as far back as the Situationists who turned the streets of Paris into their canvas in the '60s.
Let’s back up a bit. Situationist International (SI) was a collective of artists, writers, and poets involved in the cultural scene of Paris in 1968. They were also involved in the development of street art and graffiti in Paris. They didn't wait for permission to challenge their surroundings, consumer culture, and the political landscape. Are fringe artists, in the end, the ones most poised to wake up the collective and create spaces for difficult conversations?
⚫ Occulture Insight
Guy Debord (1931-1994), founder of the SI movement, launched a full-scale assault on what he termed "the society of the spectacle." His seminal 1967 book and later film La Société du Spectacle (The Society of the Spectacle) argued that authentic human experience had been replaced by an endless stream of commodified images. Through his artistic practice of détournement, he transformed advertising and media into weapons against the very system that created them.
Developing a Revolutionary Mindset
Before you start storming the gates of the art establishment, where your head is. This isn't about landing a sweet spot above someone's couch—it's about igniting discourse that makes people entertain outside perspectives. Here's your psychological toolkit:
Define Battle Lines
Get brutally honest about what you're fighting against. What makes your blood boil? What needs to be torn down and rebuilt?
Become Your Own Archivist
Document everything—your process, your influences, your failures. Today's experiment could be tomorrow's breakthrough.
Map Your Territory
Understand where your work fits in the current landscape of artistic resistance. Who's already fighting your fight?
Embrace Your Lineage
Find your artistic ancestors—the rebels, the outcasts, the ones who made the establishment squirm. Study their tactics. Occulture is dedicated to providing thought-provoking, insightful content on just this.
Own Your Growing Pains
The art world calls it "juvenilia"—those early, raw experiments that make you cringe. They're not just stepping stones, they're the foundation of your artistic revolution.
⚫ Radical Reference
Unconventional Paths:
Pignon-Ernest
Ernest Pignon-Ernest (born 1942) is a French Situationist legend. Well known for his iconic wheatpaste murals and other disruptive installations, Pignon-Ernest created a provocative portfolio over more than six decades. He brings us social commentary, political activism, and aesthetic beauty through hyperrealistic charcoal in situ portraits that also graced indoor spaces and galleries.
“Usually monochromatic, the drawings of Pignon-Ernest come to life only when they’re placed in a particular location, revealing the forgotten history of the place and memories connected to the specific site. His wheat paste art beautifully captures a range of social situations, honoring the historic figures who were pushed on the margins by the society and addressing the issues society tries to overlook.”
– Anika D., for WideWalls.
Pignon-Ernest hoped to enchant poets “who sought to inhabit the world poetically, whatever the cost. Many of their portraits show how often they embodied the aspirations, dramas, and tensions that they experienced, how much they bore the stigmata of their time.”
⚫ Radical Reference
“Check out the work of David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992), below. He created powerful works by focusing on creating discourse addressing the AIDS crisis, censorship, and gay rights. His wonderful retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 2018, History Keeps Me Awake at Night, solidified his legacy. His work and activism are extensively documented in the Fales Library Downtown Collection at NYU.”
– Cynthia Carr via Interview.
Submitting Article Ideas to Publications
Once you’ve embodied your mindset, take a bird’s eye view of your body of work. Prepare and archive the information you’ll need to write your pitch.
→ Connect your work to what's happening now
→ Show or explain new techniques; how your techniques are different
→ Frame your art as part of bigger cultural movements
→ Document how people react to your work (especially the uncomfortable ones)
Connect with Galleries
Introvert to introvert, creating an impact at it’s core is rooted in showing up in the way that makes you feel joy, which is usually a way that stretches the muscles in your genius zone—making you a magnet and unforgettable.
→ Build personal and real connections: remember the names of the gallery owners
→ Show up at alternative spaces
→ Offer to help the galleries where you aspire to land
→ Work with other artists who share your vision
→ Work with artists who exhibit in the galleries you’d like to appear in
→ Use your social media or newsletters to show your process, tagging collaborators
What the “Gatekeepers” Are Looking For
The galleries and publications that matter want work that:
→ Challenges traditional artistic conventions
→ Engages with intellectual land mines, not just aesthetic pleasantries
→ Emerges from lived experience, not market research
→ Forces viewers to question assumptions about social norms
→ Shows awareness of art history while refusing to be imprisoned by it
Take Action. 🏴☠️
Act like an artist.
Think like a gallery owner.
This is the end of the article excerpt.
To read the complete article and enjoy the optimized layout not possible within the confines of Substack, go to Occulture’s website.
🏴☠️ Find Tanya Jessica and Occulture Studio on Occulture.Media. Follow us to keep up with Occulture Studio’s mission and vision. Support local outsider artists and avant-garde arts galleries in your city. If you’re looking for a custom artist media kit, contact us at info@occulture.media or send a request for proposal here.
 |
|