The American Visionary Art Museum this weekend is opening its next major thematic exhibition, entitled “Flaunt: When Appearance Speaks.”
The year-long exhibition marks AVAM’s 31st year as the nation’s Congressionally-designated museum for self-taught, intuitive artists and visionaries.
It explores the way people use “clothing, adornment, portraiture, gesture and personal style” to indicate who they are – or who they want the world to think they are. It looks at the many ways people choose to adorn themselves and what that says about them and their identities.
The exhibit fills the second floor of the museum’s Zanvyl A. Krieger Main Building with 101 artworks in a range of mediums, including drawing, photography, fiber, sculpture and wearable forms.
In many cases, the artists used everyday materials such as buttons, pipe cleaners and bark. They’ve created intricately woven sweaters, fuzzy full-body suits and hats made of woven wood. Their works play with overstatement, excess, artifice, devotion to the handmade and expectations of value, beauty and taste.
“In the height of fast fashion and micro-trends, the artists that we showcase in ‘Flaunt’ make intensive artworks that stand the test of time, forming a sharp contrast to the disposable nature of our manufactured world,” said AVAM Executive Director Ellen Owens, in a statement.
“Here, the hand-hewn and the outrageous help us step outside of our day-to-day ‘uniforms’ and enter into new realms of our identity’s possibility and performance through our appearance,” Owens said. “With disarming individuality, these artists lead us to question the nature of visual and tactile consumption and counter the market forces that drive the mass production of our appearance today.”
“Everyone’s creativity matters’
‘Flaunt’ blends the work of internationally-known artists – including Erkki Pekkarinen, who created his well-known ‘Forest Folk’ suit from weaving birch wood, and Beau ‘The Button Man’ McCall — with local artists such as Sam Barsky, who knits sweaters featuring famous places he has visited.
For ‘Flaunt,’ Barsky contributed a never-before-seen sweater featuring an image of AVAM. Another artist featured in the exhibit is Austin-based Montrel Beverly, who drew major attention at the Outsider Art Fair in New York City last February. For ‘Flaunt,’ Beverly created high fashion items such as a Louis Vuitton handbag and Rolex watch, using his signature medium, pipe cleaners.
Other artists presented in ‘Flaunt’ include Lee Godie; HML; Lucy; Shawn Payne; Helen Rae; Maria “Maima” and Satu Tani, and Eugene Von Bruenchenhein.
The exhibition is curated by Gage Branda. He worked with curatorial advisors Jennifer Lauren Gilbert of the Jennifer Lauren Gallery in Manchester, U.K, and Cleá Massioni, a Ph.D. candidate in Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland and a Predoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lead sponsors include Christopher and Lucy Goelet; Holly and George Stone, and Whiting Turner.
The two curatorial advisors champion and advocate for neurodivergent, learning-disabled, self-taught artists, and several progressive art studios were also consulted. The exhibition showcases many works by artists that fit this description and underscores AVAM’s philosophy that everyone’s creativity matters.
‘In a twist on conventional thinking, Flaunt asks visitors not to go below the surface, but rather to examine how much feeling, invention, humor, protection and self-authorship are right in front of our eyes,” AVAM website states.
“What if style is a form of speech?” the museum asks. “What if the surface level is not shallow? What if the things that we use to decorate our bodies and shape our appearances are the clearest signals of who we really are?”
Fabric swatches and an interactive photo booth
As part of the exhibition, guests will be able to feel the different materials and textures used in the artworks by touching fabric swatches near many of the displays. The exhibition also includes an interactive photo booth selfie-station for visitors to style and experiment with their own self-images.
Located at 800 Key Highway, AVAM is launching the exhibit on Friday, Oct. 9, with a Exhibition Preview Party from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. for AVAM members and ticket holders. The exhibit will open to the general public on Saturday, Oct. 10.
On Nov. 13 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., AVAM will have a fundraiser called ‘Flaunt: Werk of Art,’ focused on the art of drag performance. It’s a collaboration with Innova Talent Agency and SADBrunch Entertainment, the largest Black-owned traveling drag entertainment company in the country. It will feature the artistry of drag with a cocktail reception, red carpet experience, drag performances and a dance party.
AVAM is open Wednesday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ‘Flaunt’ will be on view until Sept. 5, 2027. More information is available at www.avam.org.
