by hook: The 2024 Burnaway Reader

Arriving March 2024, with an essay on Mary T Smith for the theme of Camouflage. In its fifth Reader, by hook, Burnaway contemplates dubious choices, examine inherited histories, and grapples with shifty codependence between people and place in the South. Set in their themes, Conspiracy, Camouflage, and Current, they ask: What is the South? Includes a limited-edition poster by Atlanta-based artist Kelly Taylor Mitchell.

VSSL Curatorial Intervention 

Essay by Lisa Slominski on Alicia Radage and Benjamin Sebastian

A Pajama Party That Pauses Time for Hyperallergic

By Lisa Slominski. With Slumber Party, Benoît Piéron transforms the harshness of hospitals into a softer, dream-like space, where time seems flexible.

Review: Why We Linger, Raw Vision Issue #116 (Autumn/Winter 2023)

Lisa Slominski reviews the exhibition “Why We Linger” by Jennifer Lauren Gallery.

On Here, Now

By Lisa Slominski. An essay about artist Jo Longhurst’s new body of work Crip, and her recent moving image work Here, Now (2023). This work was curated by Slominski and exhibited at Studio Voltaire, London in August - September, 2023.

Christie’s Education, Emerging Artists

We’ve asked professionals from all areas of the art world to share with participants those emerging artists working today that have captured their attention. An art dealer, an art historian, an auction specialist and others will each present 5 emerging artists of their choice, providing the context for each artist’s work and the artist’s career trajectory. Join us for an exciting program that will introduce you to a variety of art that defines our contemporary culture. 

Artists Consider the Concept of Care for Hyperallergic

By Lisa Slominski. Artists such as Leah Clements, Christine Sun Kim, and Jamila Prowse exercise care as responsibility, access, and inclusivity, and fostering a critical dialogue with others.

Spiritual Art Is Back, Again for Hyperallergic

By Lisa Slominski. Contemporary artists are looking to spiritual and divination systems to address today’s power structures featuring Tabita Rezaire, Hayley Millar Baker, Madge Gill and Georgiana Houghton.

The Essay - Art from the Outside, BBC Radio 3 Podcast with Dr Victoria Tischler

In this essay on untrained and self-taught artists, psychologist Professor Victoria Tischler focuses on devotion and the important role of faith and belief and how it manifests artistically. Guest contributor: Lisa Slominski.

Neurodiverse: Inclusivity and Accessibility in Contemporary Art, Lecture

Part of Christie’s Social Engagement in the Art Market, lecture by Lisa Slominski. Geared toward arts professionals, institutions and enthusiasts this lecture introduces the current conversations surrounding neurodiversity in contemporary art. It will present the artists and studios making traction in the art world and art market, as well as key examples of institutions and organizations supporting artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It will break down some of the language used to identify the artists and organizations. It will conclude with practical tools, and strategies for art world content to be more accessible and inclusive to a wider audience.

Parallel Cultures Seminar, Centro de Arte Oliva & the Art History Department, University of Porto

What relationship can we establish between the so-called outsider art and other marginal genres and the contemporary artistic production of the established art system? What barriers exist between the arts, their systems and cultures of evaluation and validation? Keynote Speaker.

Cities in the Sky: Minnie Evans feature on Burnaway Volume 14, Issue 39: Forgotten Creations

Lisa Slominski visits Minnie Evans rainbow visions in this NONHUMAN theme story. Burnaway is an Atlanta-based, non-profit magazine of contemporary art and criticism from the American South.

Nonconoformers: Labels + Contexts for Disability in the Visual Arts Past + Present

As part of Creative Growth's 'Facing the Future Together' Symposium, keynote speaker Lisa Slominski discusses key concepts from her recently published art history book with Studio Voltaire Curator Nicola Wright and co-Director of ActionSpace Sheryll Catto.

Yale University Press Podcast, Ep. 88 – A New Take on Self-Taught Artists

In this episode of the Yale University Press podcast, we talk to writer and curator Lisa Slominski about her new book, Nonconformers: A New History of Self-Taught Artists.

Rewriting and Rereading Art History, Yale University Press Blog

To disrupt preconceptions, Nonconformers presents artists within a context that continually defies presumptions about self-taught artists. The book also explores creative practices adjacent to exhibitions, be it environment building or spiritual-based practices.

Nonconformers Book Launch and in-conversation at Studio Voltaire, London.

Lisa Slominski was joined in-conversation by Nicola Wright (Curator, Exhibitions, Studio Voltaire) to celebrate the launch of Nonconformers: A New History of Self-Taught Artists (Yale University Press: 2022).

Nonconformers: Undoing Labels and Preconceptions of “Outsider Art” in Britain, Yale Books Blog

London-based art curator, writer and cultural producer, Lisa Slominski, introduces her new book, and explores the ways in which Britain’s art establishment is reckoning with a growing appetite for more diverse voices, and increased representation of artists operating ‘outside the cultural mainstream’.

Review: To All The Kings That Have No Crowns, Raw Vision Issue #110 (Spring 2022)

Lisa Slominski the exhibition “To All The Kings That Have No Crowns” at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate; curated by Jennifer Lauren Gallery.

Season One: for an inclusive and accessible contemporary art world, ArtUK

In 2020, Sim Luttin of Arts Project Australia, Jennifer Gilbert of Jennifer Lauren Gallery, and I began a conversation about the need for a more inclusive and accessible contemporary art world for neurodivergent, intellectually, and learning disabled artists to be seen, heard, and participate.

Creativity, idiosyncrasy, transposable references. \ Documentation, psychology, measurement, structure. COMBERS

Part of artist Rebecca Kressley’s COMBERS project, this study examines an archival document from the Collection de l’Brut, Lausanne in two distinct ways. The first explores a creative practice through symbolism and mark-making in a series of small drawings. The second is a description and explanation (not psychological interpretation) of its intent.

Artists in Residence: A Glimpse into Supported Studio Culture, 8th Iranian Art Brut Annual 2022

Essay exploring supported studio culture for artists with intellectual and developmental disability in the contemporary art discourse.

‘Who Are We Now: Digital Existence, Identity + Collaboration’, Panel Lead, Art et al. at Cromwell Place

An informal panel discussion reflecting on creativity and connectedness during Covid. Panelists include artists Cherelle Sappleton, John Powell-Jones, Billy Mann from Submit to Love Studios, and curator/researcher Stella Sideli.

Guest Lecturer, Queen Mary University of London

Annual lecturer for the MA in the Creative Arts and Mental Health students considering “Outsider Art” as a historical and contemporary genre; as a problematic but influential term.

Artist Talk with Creative Growth artist, Zina Hall, Summertime Gallery, New York

Summertime was thrilled to present a virtual artist talk with Zina Hall, whose work was featured in our exhibition Fair Vanity. Zina has been an artist at Creative Growth since 2006 and was featured in The New Yorker! Zina spoke with Summertime, her daughter Myeisha Williams, long time Creative Growth mentor and nurse Charlotte Moses, and curator Lisa Slominski about early quiltmaking, why she started using colorful embroidery to capture those closest to her, and her favorite Motown hits.

Helen Rae and Nnena Kalu, Artist Spotlights, Nice to Meet You

Nice To Meet You was funded by Arts Council England to highlight emerging neurodiverse artists or historical artists whose practice contributes to the dialogue of self-taught and working outside the cultural mainstream.

These Centers Are Helping Artists with Disabilities Break into the Mainstream (and the Market), Artsy (December 2017)

Artsy Editorial article on supported studios in the cultural mainstream including Creative Growth, LAND, Project Onward, Atelier Incurve and Atelier Goldstein