A groundbreaking art exhibition featuring six neurodivergent artists is opening this Friday in the Philadelphia area, challenging traditional gallery conventions and showcasing the remarkable work of artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The exhibition, titled "LOOK HERE," will take place at Haverford College's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery and highlights artists from Greater Philadelphia who are all connected with the Center for Creative Works (CCW), a progressive studio dedicated to supporting neurodivergent artists.
"Although it's an exhibition of six artists working out of the Center for Creative Works, we were not trying to label it as a disability art show," said Jennifer Gilbert, one of the show's curators and a U.K.-based curator whose work supports artists with disabilities. "This is six contemporary artists working today out of a studio. They just happen to get a bit more support than everybody else." Gilbert curated the show alongside two CCW artists, Paige Donavan and Mary T. Bevlock, making it a truly collaborative effort.
The six featured artists - Kelly Brown, Cindy Gosselin, Clyde Henry, Tim Quinn, Brandon Spicer-Crawley, and Allen Yu - present remarkably diverse artistic practices. Gosselin, a blind artist, creates mixed-media sculptures by wrapping found objects like Barbie dolls and markers in yarn, working purely through her sense of touch. Her sculptures range from quite small pieces to one that towers taller than she is. Henry produces textured ceramics featuring charming and detailed animal heads, with his wall-hung elephants being particularly striking.
Allen Yu takes a different approach entirely, drawing with markers and repeating images he's attracted to, including trains, fast food, animals, and candies. His detailed drawings of fast-food burgers and chicken sandwiches from around the world demonstrate both care and specificity. "A couple fun ones feature Burger King's black buns, made from squid ink in South Korea," according to the exhibition description. Yu, a well-traveled artist, has either tried some of these foods or researched them extensively. "I like to try something different," Yu explained about his approach, emphasizing how much he enjoys the detail-oriented nature of the process. "I like to make art because it's fun."
The exhibition space itself has been designed to be as inclusive as possible for all types of visitors. Paintings are hung about six inches lower than average gallery height so that visitors in wheelchairs don't have to strain their necks to look up. Sensory backpacks containing headphones and fidget objects are available at the gallery entrance, while the beginning of the show includes braille, easy-read, and large-print booklets for anyone who needs them.
Videos about the artists provide visitors with background information and feature embedded American Sign Language interpretation for those with hearing impairments. "You'll notice there's a couple of benches in the space," Gilbert noted. "Rather than just have a plain, comfortable thing to sit on, we've commissioned two of the artists in the show, Brandon and Tim, to do a design which we've made into the seating."
Bevlock and Donavan helped write the labels next to each artwork, ensuring that the language at "LOOK HERE" is both playful and accessible. Their approach stands in stark contrast to typical gallery labels, which can often feel dense and filled with vocabulary that seems pulled from the latter half of SAT prep materials. For example, they describe Quinn's abstract, colorful, and geometrical artwork as having qualities that remind them of waterslides and Candyland. "We feel his works on the black backgrounds are really punchy, the label reads, with a striking appearance, next to the bright rainbow colors he often chooses to use."
The exhibition is particularly inclusive for visually impaired visitors, featuring QR codes with audio descriptions and "please touch" installations where visitors can feel the textures of the artists' materials. Brown's artwork includes layered fabrics that hang in colorful, woven layers. "Don't you just want to touch these? They're so tactile and squishy," the artist label reads. "Well, we do. And, you can." Visitors don't need to have a disability to participate in this tactile aspect of the exhibition.
The sensory experience extends beyond touch to include smell as well. "We made a sign with Jennifer and Mary that some people can scratch and sniff," Donavan explained. "When you go to Allen's work, you sniff some of his burgers." According to Gilbert, the burger smell ended up being "a bit sickly," so they opted to use a chocolate scent to evoke Yu's ice cream drawings instead.
Gilbert emphasized that for artists with intellectual disabilities, traditional forms of communication aren't always the most effective means of expression. "For some of these artists, [art] is like a communication tool for them," Gilbert said. "Their artwork is communicating something that the artist wants to communicate in a way suited to them. And it's respecting that and respecting that artist, and knowing they are doing the best of their ability. This is their own unique, individualized practice."
The "LOOK HERE" exhibition would not be possible without an inclusive art space where these artists can create and collaborate. For these six artists, that space is CCW, which operates studios in both Philadelphia and Wynnewood. The studio is dedicated not only to fostering the talents of artists with disabilities but also to helping them gain visibility and credibility in the broader art world.
"We work with artists who receive a particular kind of funding through Medicaid called the consolidated waiver, which supports day programming for those adults," explained Samantha Mitchell, CCW's exhibitions manager. "We have a really wide range of people who work with us. I think currently, our youngest artists are 21 and our oldest is 85." CCW's working artists come to the studio five days a week, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., where they choose the medium and subject they want to explore artistically.
"We have some people who are weaving, working on textile art," Mitchell said, describing the scene at CCW. "We have some people who are painting, doing kind of photorealistic paintings. We have some people who are working with ink. So, a lot of different media."
Gilbert hopes that "LOOK HERE" will challenge widespread preconceptions about artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities. "There's so many misconceptions," she said. "Some of the main ones that I often hear over in the U.K., and I know I've heard it when I've been in America as well, is that it just looks like a child has created the artwork. Or, you know, 'Oh, I could do that myself.' And it's like, well, pick up a pen and paper and demonstrate that to me, because I don't think you could."
Certainly, CCW's artists wouldn't be the first creatives to face such criticism. Even legendary artists like Pollock, Basquiat, and Duchamp may seem elementary to uninformed viewers. In fact, one of Spicer-Crawley's works, which features expressive, abstract figures, is painted over a print of Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase," creating an interesting dialogue between established and emerging artistic voices.
"LOOK HERE" opens September 19 and runs through December 13. The exhibition is part of a larger initiative, as CCW is also presenting a sister show called "LOOK THERE," also curated by Bevlock and Donavan, which exhibits one work from all of CCW's 99 Wynnewood and Philadelphia artists. Additionally, a third month-long exhibition at Atelier Gallery, "LOOK EVERYWHERE," curated by Gilbert and opening October 1, showcases artists from progressive studios across the country.
Gilbert hopes this lineup will inspire other galleries throughout the city to keep artists with intellectual disabilities in mind when organizing exhibitions. She noted that adding accessible elements to exhibitions, such as sensory backpacks, "please touch" elements, and other accommodations, isn't particularly difficult or expensive to implement. "It's about including them in shows like you would include anybody else," she said. "So not necessarily having to do a disability art show in your institution, but having a group show and having these people seen on an equal footing alongside some of the greats that are seen in the contemporary art world today."
Yu demonstrates considerable ambition for his artistic career. He hopes people will view his work as both authentic and iconic, and dreams of seeing his pieces displayed in galleries around the globe. "I want my artwork to be sold in Japan or South Korea or London," he said, reflecting the international scope of his artistic aspirations.
Expanding possibilities for artists with disabilities is certainly achievable, as demonstrated by recent successes in the field. Judith Scott, whose work will be included in "LOOK EVERYWHERE," has had a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. Just last December, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) featured its first-ever exhibition centered around a developmentally disabled artist, Marlon Mullen, marking a significant milestone for disability representation in major cultural institutions.
However, challenges remain for studios like CCW. Potential cuts to Medicaid funding could threaten the existence of such progressive studios. "There's a chance that lots of these studios will actually disappear and these people will just go back into their lives, and some of them might not be able to access some of the materials at home, or get some of the support they need to make art," Gilbert warned. "So, it's a really pivotal moment right now."
Gilbert hopes these exhibitions will help people recognize the importance of elevating neurodivergent voices in the art world. "That's what I really advocate for and push for," she said. "So that everyone is seen just as an artist in the same way that they should always be seen, and everyone should be hung, displayed, written about, in the same way that any artist should be." This exhibition represents more than just a showcase of artistic talent; it's a call for fundamental change in how the art world recognizes and celebrates diverse forms of creative expression.
