Rhodes’ research is primarily in the areas of 20th century and contemporary art history and theory. He has written and lectured widely on Modernism, especially Expressionism in its many forms, and Self-Taught and Outsider Art. His books include the influential Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives (2000), which has also been published in Spanish, French and Finnish editions, and Primitivism and Modern Art (1994), which is also in French translation. He has a particular interest in the ways in which western art and culture has interacted with that of its perceived others, and in those cultures of production that exist in the margins of the dominant art world. He is a regular contribitor to Raw Vision, Création Franche and The Burlington Magazine. He has a keen commitment to drawing and exhibits his own art occasionally.
Rhodes' is Director of STOARC (the Self-Taught and Outsider Art Research Collection), which is based at the University of Sydney. STOARC consists of a growing study collection of Australian and international Self-Taught and Outsider Art, the International Journal of Self-taught and Outsider Art, and Callan Park Gallery, which has a rich public program of exhibitions of established and emerging figures within the field.
Significant Exhibitions
Anne Marie Grgich: Archaeologies of the Everyday Extraordinary (curator), Sydney University Art Gallery, Sydney, October–December 2009
José dos Santos (curator), Callan Park Gallery, SCA, the University of Sydney, Sydney, March–April 2009
Revealing the Human (curator), Arts Project Australia, Melbourne, September–October 2009
American and European Outsiders (curator), Orange Regional Gallery, Orange, September–November 2008
Vision et Créations dissidentes, Musée de la Création Franche, Bègles, France, September–November 2008
The Enigma of Albert Louden (curator), Callan Park Gallery, SCA, the University of Sydney, Sydney, April–May 2009
Hans Hartman and Paulus de Groot (curator), Callan Park Gallery, SCA, the University of Sydney, Sydney, June 2009
‘I am weaving you a shroud’: Rosemarie Koczÿ's Holocaust Memorial (curator), Callan Park Gallery, SCA, the University of Sydney, Sydney, July 2009
Fresh Creation: Gérard Sendrey (curator), Callan Park Gallery, SCA, the University of Sydney, Sydney, September–October 2009
APA People (curator), Callan Park Gallery, SCA, the University of Sydney, Sydney, March 2010
Significant Publications
‘Primitivism: the primordium lost and found and reinvented’, in K. Zijlmans and W. van Damme (eds), World Art Studies: exploring concepts and approaches
Valiz, Amsterdam, 2008, pp. 385–99, ISBN: 13978907808826
‘Outsider Art and the outsiderish’, in Without Borders: Outsider Art in an Antipodean Context Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne and Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney, 2008, pp. 12–14
‘Outsider Art: Moving in from the Margins’ (Special Report), Encyclopaedia Britannica Book of the Year 2008 Thames & Hudson, 2008, pp. 190–91, ISBN: 9781593394257
Vicios y virtudes del imperativo autodidactica, Expressionismo Brückeed, Aya Soika, Madrid, 2005
Les fantômes qui nous hantent: en écrivant Art Brut et Art Outsider Dossiers sur l’art, nos 53, 54, 55, 56, Ligeia, July–December 2004, pp. 183–95
‘Burlington Primitive: non-European art in The Burlington Magazine before 1930’
The Burlington Magazine, vol. 146, no. 1211, 2004, pp. 98–104
‘Fulfilments of desire in the work of a self-taught artist: The intimate existence of Malcolm McKesson’ Art History, vol. 25, no .5, 2002 pp. 649–75, ISSN: 01416790
Ian Breakwell: Vocals (4CD set of artist’s soundworks, edited and with an essay by C. Rhodes), Loughborough University School of Art & Design, 2003, ISBN: 1900856514
Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives, Thames & Hudson, London & New York 2000, ISBN: 0500203342
Primitivism and Modern Art, Thames & Hudson, London and New York, 1994, ISBN: 0500202761
A much maligned monster: Why Outsider Art doesn’t lock horns with the artworld Contemporary Visual Art and Culture Broadsheet, vol. 39, no. 1 2010 pp. 70–72 ISSN: 0819677X
An other academy: Creative workshops for artists with intellectual disabilities The International Journal of the Arts in Society, vol. 3, no. 1 2008 pp. 129–34 ISSN: 18331866
Contact the expert by e-mail: colin.rhodes@sydney.edu.au