Contemporary art is a premium alternative asset class that attracts ambitious investors who are looking to outperform the major indices and diversify their holdings into an uncorrelated sector of global markets. Within this alternative asset class lies yet another alternative: outsider art.

Outsider art has a rich history dating back to the first half of the 20th century, when avant-garde artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Jean Dubuffet became fascinated by the art of the neurodiverse, children, and peasants. They saw in these artworks a purity, originality, and intensity that contrasted with the academic and conventional art of their time. Dubuffet coined the term “art brut” (raw art) to describe these artworks, and collected thousands of them in his personal museum which he gifted to the city of Lausanne in 1976.

The category of outsider art encompasses artists without formal education and commercial gallery representation. Oftentimes, these artists also experience psychosis, have a serious disability, or live on the margins of society due to a pronounced personal idiosyncrasy. All of these factors combine to make outsider art particularly difficult to collect. However, for the astute collector who knows where to look and how to approach this market anomaly, outsider art promises an incredibly rewarding journey filled with improbable interlocutors and the possibility of outsized returns.

Henry Darger, Christmas seal girls (1958). Watercolor, pencil and stamps on paper pasted on cardboard

Difficulties with Valuation

The investment opportunity presented by outsider art is especially challenging to discern because it confounds fundamental criteria which are commonly used to appraise art. For instance, outsider artists’ manner of self-representation is devoid of the markers of value found in the CVs of professional artists. Art collectors and their advisors routinely assess artists’ potential by virtue of where they have been educated and where they have exhibited, and these factors combine to create a valuation band for the artist.

Conversely, outsider artists are without academic qualifications and list of gallery exhibitions. The absence of institutional acceptance leads to a wild market without a reliable price floor. For collectors, that’s a very daunting prospect to contend with.

However, the history of extraordinarily low entry points on prolific outsider artists can make the upside potential highly compelling to collectors with an appetite for risk and a commitment to stewarding this vein of artistic expression that is innocently unversed in art history and the conventions of the contemporary art canon.

Increased Recognition

It is common for the most prolific of outsider artists to go virtually unnoticed by the art world during their lifetimes. Nevertheless, a contingent of devoted curators and outsider art aficionados have raised the profile of standout talents through exhibitions and critical attention. Outsider art gained recognition in the 1970s, when the British art critic Roger Cardinal introduced the term “outsider art” to encompass a wider range of artists and artworks that did not fit into established categories. In 1979, he and Victor Musgrave organized an exhibition called Outsiders at the Hayward Gallery which featured works by artists such as Adolf Wölfli, Henry Darger, Madge Gill, and Nek Chand.

Combining translucent polymer clay with saturated pigments or carving delicate ridges from tulipwood, Levi van Veluw constructs enigmatic, immersive narratives. The Dutch artist has been fascinated by symbols and rituals since childhood, spurred by an upbringing in a religious household. The complexity and conviction of faith and “the stark visual language of its practice made him sensitive to the visual vernacular of religious seduction,” reads a statement for the artist’s series Beyond Matter.

Memory, architecture, and storytelling manifests in Beyond Matter through the portrayal of naves or chapel-like spaces, altars, and mandalas redolent of rose windows. Geometry and repetition interact with light and shadow in meditative patterns, exploring the parallels of spiritual experience and viewing art. Van Veluw prompts questions about what and how we see and our role in completing the picture.

In another body of work, In the depths of memory, van Veluw explores portraiture and interactions between figures in a series of framed reliefs that echo movie stills or storyboard frames. And an immersive room stacked top-to-bottom with identical portraits invites viewers to stand in the center of a mysterious chamber. Mirrors on the floor and ceiling reflect the walls and one another, giving the impression of a space that is both confined and infinite. The artist leaves its interpretation open: Are you in a studio? A fever dream? Inside the artist’s mind?

“Dinner”

Van Veluw’s uses portals, windows, and the power of the gaze to invite us into the narrative. “In between,” for example, depicts an unhappy family in a car, viewed straight-on through the windshield. In “Dinner,” an argument has been interrupted, and one subject turns around in his seat to face outward in frustration. “Stared at by piercing gazes, you are made complicit in a situation that unfolds before your eyes,” says a statement. “You are being looked at, but, in a way, you are also looking at yourself from the outside.”

An acquisition of van Veluw’s piece “Planetary Chapel” by the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam is scheduled to go on view soon, and he is currently preparing solo exhibitions for the Singer Museum in Laren, The Netherlands, and Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris. The artist is represented by Galerie Ron Mandos, and you can explore his work in much more detail on his website. He also shares updates and amazing process videos on Instagram.

“In between”

Detail of “In between”

“In the depths of memory”

Detail of “In the depths of memory”

“Circular Compound”

“Beyond Matter”

“Distinct”

“Divine”

“Conversation”

“Abstruse”

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