Outsider Art Arrives in Shanghai

A journey to the margins of official art arrives in Shanghai: the Power Station of Art hosts the first major exhibition in China dedicated to Art Brut. With 259 works by 52 artists, the show weaves together creations from the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne with pieces by four self-taught Chinese artists, opening a window onto a creative universe that rejects every rule.
The term Art Brut, coined by Jean Dubuffet, refers to the art of outsiders working outside academic circuits and the market: isolated or rebellious figures, capable of inventing personal, often visionary languages. Across the exhibition’s six sections, imagination alternates with concreteness, revealing how the necessity to create can become both a spiritual refuge and an act of resistance. Alongside pioneers such as Adolf Wölfli and Aloïse Corbaz, more recent artists emerge, including Judith Scott and the Chinese Guo Fengyi, whose work serves as an ideal bridge between Lausanne and Shanghai. Documents, films, and reconstructed environments complete the journey, paying homage to Dubuffet and his insight: that the true core of art hides where it is least expected, far from definitions and official recognition.