American Visionary Art Museum

Next time you're in Baltimore, if you live out state, or immediately if you're already here, you've got to check out the American Visionary Art Museum. It's unlike any other art museum I've ever visited, and I've visited more than one.

So what is "visionary art"? AVAM's website defines it as:

...art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself.

The description sounds a little like folk art, and it definitely does share some elements with that untrained art genre. It often uses unconventional materials and unconventional settings just like folk art. But AVAM differentiates visionary art from folk art by pointing out that folk art is a tradition, passed down the generations. Visionary art is unique to the artist. Processes may be borrowed, and often recombined, but the artist's voice is his or her own. No other person is speaking through them (unless the exhibit happens to be featuring schizophrenic or "spiritual" substance using artists.)

What you find touring through the museum is really unlike anything else you've likely experienced before. One exhibit I saw a couple years ago featured artwork from Obsessive Compulsives. Some of it was astounding. The levels of detail, nearly infinite repetitions of shape and the vast amounts of time obviously expended on each piece revealed a lot about the OC brain.


The first two exhibits I ever had the pleasure of touring were the two I listed earlier, art produced with the aid of hallucinogenic plants and compounds, and artists with some form of or relation to mental illness. Both brilliant displays, and my two favorite of all time. Chris Mars has always been a favorite artist of mine, and I got the chance to see some of his work in person in the latter display.

Right now AVAM is running, "The Marraige of Art, Science, and Philosophy." Kate and I saw the installation a few months ago. If you get the chance, check it out. And check out the gift shop afterwards. AVAM's gift shop is a an experience all its own.