The Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne presents Chicago Calling, an exhibition showcasing the work of 10 outsider artists—Henry Darger, William Dawson, Lee Godie, Mr. Imagination, Aldo Piacenza, Pauline Simon, Drossos Skyllas, Dr. Charles Smith, Wesley Willis, and Joseph Yoakum—who lived and worked in Chicago.

Overall, the exhibition highlights Chicago’s history of robust recognition and acceptance of self-taught art and artists by unearthing the common themes throughout the artists’ bodies of work in addition to the commingled histories of the curators, dealers, collectors, and appreciators who embraced the outsider art genre in Chicago.

The exhibition is curated by Kenneth C. Burkhart (independent curator) and Lisa Stone (Curator of the Roger Brown Study Collection of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) and was originally presented at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art from June 29, 2018–February 10, 2019. It traveled to Halle St. Pierre (Paris, France, March 23–August 2, 2019), Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren (Kaufbeuren, Germany, October 10, 2019–January 26, 2020) and will later be presented at the Outsider Art Museum (Amsterdam, October 7, 2020–May 24, 2021).