Rediscovering the Creative Identity of Self-Taught Artists

This spring, the American Folk Art Museum (AFAM) presents *Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists*, a major exhibition critically examining the historical definition of the “self-taught artist” in the United States through authorship, agency, and self-representation. Spanning the early 20th century to today, the exhibition features 90 works focusing on self-portraiture, alter egos, and autobiography.

*Self-Made* is the first sustained museum exploration of artistic self-fashioning by artists working outside conventional art-world systems, often historically excluded due to race, gender, disability, and other deviations from normative power structures. The exhibition challenges longstanding assumptions, positioning these artists as central contributors to modern and contemporary art.

Drawn largely from the Museum’s collection, the presentation includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, videos, photographs, and artist books, many on view for the first time. The exhibition builds on AFAM’s *Rethinking Biography* reparative cataloguing initiative, which emphasizes each artist’s voice and positionality, placing their work at the center of interpretation.

Works by Henry Darger, Clémentine Hunter, and Martín Ramírez are featured alongside international figures like Aloïse Corbaz and Adolf Wölfli, and contemporary artists such as Nicole Appel, Susan Janow, and Joe Coleman create a dynamic dialogue across geographies and lived experiences.

By centering self-invention as both method and message, *Self-Made* offers a timely, inclusive, and revelatory rethinking of artistic identity.

The American Folk Art Museum is located at 2 Lincoln Square, diagonally across from Lincoln Center. Admission to the Museum is always free, emphasizing its commitment to broad public access. To learn more, visit [folkartmuseum.org](https://folkartmuseum.org/exhibitions/self-made/?ref=hyperallergic.com).