Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists
American Folk Art Museum Presents an Innovative Look at How Self-taught Artists Define Themselves
April 10–September 13, 2026
NEW YORK, February 12, 2026 — This spring, the American Folk Art Museum presents Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists, an exhibition that takes a critical look at the historical definition of the “self-taught artist” in the United States from the early twentieth century to today. Self-Made examines how artists without academic training have depicted, conceptualized, and identified themselves on their own terms.
Foregrounding self-portraits, alter egos, and autobiographies as deliberate strategies of authorship, agency, and artistic intent, the exhibition offers the first sustained museum exploration of artistic self-fashioning within this field with a tightly curated selection of over ninety works.
“Self-Made represents the essence of the American Folk Art Museum, as the nation’s home of folk and self-taught artists. It also reaffirms our longstanding commitment to expand the story of art in America and around the world by leading projects centered on artists’ intentions and authorship beyond academic tradition,” stated Jason T. Busch, Becky and Bob Alexander Director & CEO.
“In 2023, AFAM launched a reparative cataloguing project, Rethinking Biography, to strengthen its stewardship of the twentieth- and twenty-first-century art collection. This initiative
prompted a broader reassessment of how works are defined, exhibited, and interpreted. Self-Made grew out of that effort, foregrounding artists’ voices and placing their art at the heart of interpretation,” added Valérie Rousseau, PhD, Curatorial Chair and Senior Curator of 20th-Century & Contemporary Art.
Drawn primarily from the Museum’s collection, the exhibition includes drawings, paintings, and sculptures alongside photographs, artists’ notebooks, and videos. Many of the works are recent or rarely-seen acquisitions, providing new perspectives on both canonical figures and lesser-known artists associated with this artistic area.
Works by U.S.-based artists Nicole Appel, Joe Coleman, Henry Darger, Thornton Dial Sr., Morris Hirshfield, John Kane, Bill Miller, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Martín Ramírez, Janet Sobel, and Bill Traylor are presented in dialogue with those of key international figures such as Marcel Bascoulard, Aloïse Corbaz, Madge Gill, Augustin Lesage, and Adolf Wölfli. Together, these works illuminate a defining period in which artists articulated their creative identities against—and often in resistance to—institutional, social, and cultural constraints.
The works on view attest to diverse modes of learning and knowledge production, from professional expertise to community-based traditions, emerging in settings that include affirmative spaces like art workshops for individuals with disabilities, domestic environments, and contexts of forced confinement like psychiatric hospitals and prisons. Self-Made is organized around three methods of “self-making:” self-portraits, alter egos, and autobiographies, each presented chronologically in a cumulative experience that provides historical grounding for artists’ personal agency.
Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists is curated by Valérie Rousseau, PhD, Curatorial Chair and Senior Curator of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, with Suzie Oppenheimer, Ponsold-Motherwell Curatorial Fellow, City University of New York, Graduate Center, and Research Associate.
FREE PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Alongside Self-Made, the Museum will present a robust series of in-person and virtual programs that further examine how self-taught art has been defined, interpreted, and received in the U.S. since the early twentieth century. Ongoing engagements include weekly Closer-Look Tours led by AFAM gallery guides, offering focused discussions of key works and themes, as well as Folk Art Reflections, a monthly Community Access series designed for those living with Alzheimer’s disease and their care partners, taking place on April 2, May 7, June 4, and July 2.
Programs for families and educators include Family Days on May 2 and July 9, featuring guided gallery discussions, hands-on activities, and art-making in the Museum’s studio, and an Educator Open House on April 23. Additional offerings include a Writers Workshop on June 16 and a series of Verbal Imaging and Touch Tours, designed for visitors who are blind or have low vision, on June 18 and 26; July 7, and August 11.
The Museum will also host scholarly and artist-led conversations that expand Self-Made’s critical framework, such as a discussion of the wood sculptures of Diné artist Charlie Willeto with emerging Diné art scholar and curator Ninabah Reid Winton and a program exploring the practice and legacy of African American artist Minnie Evans. AFAM will also host an in-person workshop led by one of the contemporary artists featured in the exhibition.
EXHIBITION SUPPORT
Lead support for Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists is provided by Nina Beaty. Major support is provided by dieFirma; Roberta S. and Ralph S. Terkowitz; and Deedee Wigmore. Additional support is provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Robert Lehman Foundation, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the David Davies and Jack Weeden Fund for Exhibitions.