Signature Theatre to Host THE PAINTED ROCKS AT REVOLVER CREEK Play Discussion, 5/16

Signature Theatre has announced that the unique World of the Play series continues with "Exploring Outsider Art." This World of the Play event will explore the work of Outsider Artists like the self-taught Nukain Mabusa, whose life and work inspired Athol Fugard's The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek. The panel of experts for this exciting discussion include gallerist Andrew Edlin, arts journalist Edward M. Gómez, and curator Kristin Sancken. The discussion will be led by moderator Brian Phillips. The event is free and open to the general public (no reservations required).

The event will take place at 4:00 p.m. in the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).

Nukain Mabusa, a farm laborer and artist who lived in South Africa, painted bright geometrical patterns on the rocks near his small hut at Revolver Creek, Mpumalanga Province, from the 1960s to the early 1980s. The self-taught Mabusa, like other Outsider Artists, worked outside the formal boundaries of the established art world. In this World of the Play panel, Signature will explore the men and women who make Outsider Art, creating works for themselves without regard to exhibition, monetary compensation, or formal training. Why do these artists create work in solitude? Is their work autobiographical in nature, since it is made for the artists themselves? Why is there such an allure around the discovery of "authentic" art? What can Outsider Art teach us about our broader culture? What happens when this art passes from isolation to acceptance?

Seating is limited and panelists are subject to change.

Andrew Edlin was born in Manhattan in 1961 and grew up in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. After graduating from the Horace Mann School in 1979, he attended the University of Vermont, where he received his B.A. in English Literature in 1983. In 2001, Edlin founded Andrew Edlin Gallery with a program specializing in self-taught art and art brut. He acquired the Outsider Art Fair in 2012 under the auspices of the newly formed company Wide Open Arts.

Edward M. Gómez is an arts journalist, critic, author, and graphic designer. He is the senior editor of the London-based Outsider Art magazine Raw Vision and the New York correspondent of the American magazine Art & Antiques. A specialist in Outsider Art and in Japanese modern art, he has lived and worked in Japan, speaks and works in Japanese and several other languages, and has won the Fulbright Fellowship and Asian Cultural Council Fellowship to Japan for his research in the field of Japanese modernism. He won the Swiss National Art Council's Pro Helvetia Award in support of his research about the legendary Swiss art brut artist Adolf Wölfli.

Kristin Sancken is a New York-based writer, curator, and art consultant. Recent curatorial projects include "Logical Guesses" (New York, 2014) and "Breathless" (New York, 2014), the DJ for a Cure 2014 Winter Benefit (New York, 2014), a permanent collection for Diaspora Community Services (New York, 2013), "Kink" by Andrea Mary Marshall (New York, 2013), and "Paper Vernacular" (New York, 2013), as well as the 2012 selling exhibition "Watercolors" at Phillips de Pury & Co. Sancken holds an MA in Art Business from the Sotheby's Institute of Art in New York City, where she completed her thesis on the market for Outsider Art, and continues to be an avid collector and supporter of Outsider and Self-Taught Art.

Brian Phillips (Moderator) is the co-editor of the Journal of Human Rights Practice, published by Oxford University Press. Based now in Toronto, he presently works as an independent human rights consultant. From 2003 until 2006, he was Chair of the Oxford Brookes University MA program in Humanitarian and Development Practice (UK) - where he was also Senior Lecturer in Human Rights Practice. He worked as a campaigner and educator for Amnesty International in London from 1989 - 2001 - and was the Campaign Coordinator for the organization's Europe Regional Program from 1995 - 2001.

The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek is a work of fiction and is not intended to reflect actual circumstances, events and persons in the life of Nukain Mabusa. Tickets for all Signature productions are available by calling Signature at 212-244-7529, online by visiting www.signaturetheatre.org, or by visiting The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street). For more information on Signature Theatre, please visit www.signaturetheatre.org.

Photo by Joan Marcus