Art Outside In

Art — Produced by Michael O’Reilly

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is undergoing an ambitious and far-ranging multi-phase renovation, part of which is being overseen by the architect, Frank Gehry. There are those who have commented that “Philadelphia gets a “Gehry” and it is completely underground”. What this sentiment doesn’t realize, and what our segment hopes to rectify, is that design can be hidden behind an already-established facade, but still be brilliant. The ART segment takes you below, behind and through the little-seen spaces at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and ultimately ends at the current exhibition, “Great and Mighty Things“. This outsider art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz collection was donated to the museum precisely at a time when the PMA was best-equipped in decades to deal with the original and unruly forms of this “homegrown” art form.

Web Extra: Outsider Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s latest exhibition “Great and Mighty Things” presents various unique “outsider” artists’s work from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz collection. Curator Ann Percy walks us through the exhibit and focuses on one of the most intriguing artists, James Castle, a deaf and mute man who could only communicate with others through his artwork. Edited by Jasia Kaulbach