THROWING DOWN THE GAUNTLET, AN ART DEALER ASKS: “IS OUTSIDER ART DEAD? SHOULD IT BE?”

SCOTT OGDEN OF SHRINE (NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES) ARGUES THAT A FAMILIAR LABEL IS HINDERING ARTISTS’ PROGRESS

by Edward M. Gómez

Scott Ogden grew up in the suburbs of Dallas and studied art at the University of Texas, Austin. Later, he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine and earned a master’s degree in fine art from Queens College in New York.

Growing up in Texas, Ogden was exposed to a variety of folk art and vernacular art traditions, and he developed a keen interest in outsider art, too. After moving to New York, he worked as an art handler for the late Phyllis Kind (1933-2018), the legendary dealer whose galleries in Chicago and New York played a large role starting in the late 1970s in promoting the work of self-taught artists and establishing a market for outsider art.

The artworks seen here were all included in SHRINE L.A.’s recent Death of an Outsider exhibition. Above: Untitled drawing by Frank Jones (1900-1969), date unknown, colored pencil on paper; 22.75 x 24.5 inches (57.79 x 62.23 centimeters). Photo courtesy of SHRINE

Ogden became a well-informed collector of this kind of art and in early 2019 opened SHRINE, a gallery in New York specializing in both art made by academically trained contemporary artists and works made by their self-taught peers. Like certain other dealers whose interests and exhibition programs reflect a similar aesthetic sensibility and art-dealing approach, Ogden does not emphasize the self-taught, outsider status of the artists whose works he presents to whom the “outsider” label would normally be applied.