The Doors of Perception: Beyond the Flat World of Appearances

Launching May 2–5 at Frieze New York 2019, “The Doors of Perception" presents a large constellation of works made by exceptionally gifted artists from five continents, all selected by contemporary artist Javier Téllez, and offering a panorama of art created on the margins of society. Whether psychiatric patients, self-taught visionaries, or mediums, each of the artists in the exhibition felt at some point in their life the need to create an artistic language of their own in order to reveal what they understood to be the true nature of things.

“Truly utopian, the visionary artists represent the world anew, so they often think of the future as a parallel dimension to the present (William Hall, Prophet Royal Robertson, George Widener, Adolf Wölfli). For them, time is a perpetual possibility, having invented codes to access a new consciousness beyond the flat world of appearances (John Devlin, Ionel Talpazan, Melvin Way, Widener). As William Blake wrote: ‘If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite.’” –Javier Téllez

Further details will be announced soon. To keep up to date with the latest from Frieze, follow @FriezeArtFair on Instagram and Twitter, @FriezeArtFairs on Facebook, and sign up to our newsletter.

Frieze New York takes place in Randall’s Island Park from May 2-5, 2019. 

Image above: Martín Ramírez, Untitled (Arches) c. 1960-63. Gouache, colored pencil, and graphite on paper 22.5 x 20 in (57.1 x 50.8 cm). Courtesy of Ricco Maresca Gallery, New York