Written by Elva Zhang, Visual Arts Administration, ‘25
In March 2026, the Outsider Art Fair opened its doors in New York, bringing together galleries and organizations dedicated to artists working outside traditional art world structures. I visited the fair for the first time after being invited by my friend Xihai Ge, a recent graduate of NYU's Visual Arts Administration (VAA) program who curated Inner Worlds for the Nanjing Outsider Art Center (南京原生艺术中心). Founded in 2006 by artist Guo Haiping, the Nanjing Outsider Art Center is a nonprofit organization that supports artists living with mental illness and those in recovery by providing long-term studio space, creative support, and opportunities to exhibit their work. For many of the artists, drawing becomes a way to communicate, focus their attention, and process their inner experiences.
At the booth, Xihai had selected nine self-taught Chinese artists involved with the Center. I was immediately struck by the intensity and individuality of the works. Some artists created dense abstract patterns through repetition, while others filled their drawings with fragments of memory, stories, and imagination. The presentation felt less like a conventional exhibition and more like an invitation into deeply personal ways of seeing.
Becoming involved with the Center happened gradually for Xihai. Before joining NYU, he studied design and art history at the University of California, Davis, with a focus on Asian and European art history. Wanting a more practical understanding of how the art world operates, he moved to New York in 2023 to study in VAA. Looking back, Xihai sees the VAA program as a period of exploration. Courses such as Strategic Planning introduced him to a wide range of arts organizations and cultural initiatives, while Curatorial Practice gave him hands-on exposure to exhibition making and curatorial thinking. Through these experiences, he began to understand the art world from multiple perspectives—from market systems and institutional structures to the ways art can affect audiences and communities. “When I first entered the program, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” he recalls. “The program allowed me to explore different areas of the art world and gradually find what interested me.”
After graduating in 2025, Xihai explored several areas of the arts industry, particularly auctions and the secondary market. Around the same time, the Nanjing Outsider Art Center approached him to help facilitate communication with influential figures in the outsider art field, including gallerists Andrew Edlin and John Maizels. What began as a connective role soon developed into deeper curatorial involvement. In Nanjing, Xihai observed the artists’ daily creative practices at the Center and gradually built relationships with many of them. “What struck me was how unified each artist’s work was with their inner world,” he says. Some artists came to the studio every day, while others worked independently at home and brought their drawings to the center. While many of the artists live with conditions such as autism, schizophrenia, or cerebral palsy, Xihai emphasized that the center’s mission is not to define artists through diagnosis. Rather, it seeks to build trust, encourage self-expression, and provide long-term support for artistic practice. The relationships he developed at the Center became the foundation of Inner Worlds at the Outsider Art Fair. Xihai selected works that reflected both the artists’ own preferences and the unique visual language they had developed over years of practice.The exhibition marked the first presentation by a mainland Chinese outsider art organization.
One of the challenges of presenting Inner Worlds in New York involved navigating different cultural attitudes toward privacy. “In China, people are often more direct when discussing an artist’s psychological or physical condition,” Xihai explains. “But in New York, there’s more sensitivity around privacy and not reducing artists to a diagnosis.” The challenge became even more apparent because most of the artists were unable to travel to New York. Rather than relying solely on the artworks, Xihai’s booth included interviews, photographs, and documentation from the artists’ daily lives to help visitors better understand their creative practice. One of the most rewarding aspects of the project was seeing the Fair’s audiences engage with the substance of Inner Worlds. “What I learned from this experience is that there are many ways to help artists be seen,” he says. “Many of these artists can’t easily promote themselves or explain their work in the ways the art world often expects. Part of our role is creating opportunities for people to encounter their work and recognize its value.”
While Inner Worlds was driven by a strong social mission, it also operated within the commercial context of an art fair. Xihai was conscious of finding a balance between generating income for the artists and ensuring that attention was not concentrated on only a few market-friendly works and that revenue from sales would be returned directly to the artists.
Alongside his work with outsider art, Xihai currently also works with LiveAuctioneers as an on-site bidder. Rather than viewing the nonprofit and commercial sectors as separate worlds, he sees them as interconnected. His experience in the auction field has given him insight into how artworks circulate, how collectors make decisions, and how economic structures can support artistic practice.
Looking ahead, Xihai hopes to continue expanding awareness of outsider art in China through exhibitions, institutional partnerships, and greater international exchange. He is particularly interested in building connections between organizations working in this field across different countries while creating more opportunities for artists to gain visibility. At the same time, he also wants to continue working in the auction field and is interested in exploring new models that connect Chinese and international markets.
Like many recent graduates, Xihai is still discovering exactly where his path will lead. Yet what stands out is that he moves across different sectors of the art world while remaining committed to projects he finds personally meaningful. “When you first graduate, it’s easy to become replaceable as just another art worker,” he says. “Personal projects and your own interests are what help define your position and your voice.” Thinking back to my visit to Inner Worlds, I see how Xihai is creating spaces of curiosity, dignity, and attention for artists who are often marginalized. In doing so, he is not only contributing to a growing conversation around outsider art in China but also carving out a distinctive place for himself within the contemporary art world.