Insider/Outsider at America Oh Yes! Gallery — Dana Ellyn

Insider/Outsider · America Oh Yes! Gallery · April 2003

Full-page ad in Raw Vision Magazine #42, Spring 2003. Click to view larger.

Insider/Outsider

America Oh Yes! Gallery
1350 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 202
Washington, DC 20036
April 2003

Dana Ellyn exhibited four paintings in Insider/Outsider, a group show where America Oh Yes! presented more than 20 artists side by side — formally trained painters alongside self-taught outsiders — and challenged visitors to determine which was which. The gallery offered a painting as a prize to anyone who could correctly identify every artist's background.

The premise cut straight to a question at the heart of the insider/outsider debate: does formal training define an artist, or does the work speak for itself? The exhibition hung fine art next to outsider art with no labels and no categories — letting the paintings do the talking.

America Oh Yes! operated galleries in Washington, DC, Hilton Head Island, SC, and San Francisco, CA, representing over 150 self-taught artists. The gallery placed a full-page advertisement for the Insider/Outsider exhibition in Raw Vision Magazine, the world's leading publication devoted to outsider, visionary, and contemporary folk art.

Insider/Outsider
America Oh Yes! Gallery
1350 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 202, Washington, DC
Additional locations: Hilton Head Island, SC · San Francisco, CA
April 2003 · Group Exhibition (20+ artists)

Raw Vision Magazine · Issue #42 · Spring 2003

Raw Vision #42, Spring 2003 — featuring Anselme Boix-Vives, Fred Smith, Rosa Zharkikh, and Donald Mitchell. The Insider/Outsider ad appeared inside this issue.

Dana Ellyn's Paintings in the Exhibition

Self Portraits

Oil on canvas · 20″ × 24″

I'm standing in a room where other versions of me press through the walls — one peering from a window, another screaming from inside a box. This was an early attempt to paint the experience of containing multiple selves at once, each one fighting to be seen.

Learning from Frida

Oil on canvas · 20″ × 24″

A nod to Frida Kahlo's self-portraits with animals. The black cat carries Frida's face — mentor and muse collapsed into a single creature, cradled close. This was an early painting that signaled the art-historical conversations I'd keep returning to for the next two decades.

Butterball Builds a Wall

Acrylic on board · 30″ × 40″

Butterball was one of my childhood nicknames. I painted this during a stressful visit from my mother to DC — her presence brought up years of memories of her and my sister constantly fighting while I kept to myself, staying out of the fray. The figure is surrounded by stacked blocks, building a wall. That's what I did as a kid. The raw, aggressive brushwork matched what I was feeling — none of the control of the oil portraits hanging next to it in the same show.

Just a Kid

Acrylic on board · 30″ × 40″

Painted during the same visit from my mother. Me as a kid, curled into a favorite chair, trying to blend into it and stay safe from the conflict around me. The red, blue, and white collide with the same aggressive energy as Butterball Builds a Wall — the two large acrylics stood in deliberate contrast to the quieter oil portraits, an early example of range that I'd keep pushing for the next 20 years.