The first installment of a series of exhibitions entitled The Outsiders features work by Thordis Adalsteinsdottir, Hisham Bharoocha, Farika, Tara Lisa Foley, Mike Giant, Nathan Gwynne, Ginny Hwang, Rich Jacobs, Hiroki Otsuka, Andrew Poneros, Cynthia Rojas, Kim Schifino and Veronica Velasquez.

The exhibition seeks to investigate the depth and significance of contemporary outsider art. Inspiring the show’s title is S.E. Hinton’s 1967 novel, The Outsiders, and its portrayal of teens struggling to gain a sense of belonging on society’s edge. Hinton’s powerful depiction of rebelliousness and vulnerability achieved even greater notice in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 cult movie of the same name. On screen, Coppola’s young actors explored the impulse to stick together that becomes the necessary survival strategy of young outsiders.

Of course many would argue that such an impulse is innate to human nature, and that there are countless instances of its study long before The Outsiders became popular. The intensely independent poet Robert Frost presaged the underlying theme in his eight-line meditation on the loss of innocence that comes with onset of time, Nothing Gold Can Stay. Indeed, this poem was also the inspiration behind the naming of Stay Gold Gallery.

Fusing together these motifs of rebellion, solidarity, and endangered innocence, Stay Gold Gallery presents a new generation of visual artists in the first annual exhibition, “The Outsiders.” Like the characters in the novel, these artists do not belong to the mainstream contemporary art scene and yet they are simultaneously bound by their outsider status.

Featured artist Mike Giant, who coincidentally owns an Albuquerque tattoo shop called “Stay Gold,” puts a contemporary spin on vintage pin-ups and other traditional tattoo flash images. Also showing is Hisham Bharoocha, the ex-member of noise rock duo Lighting Bolt and the experimental band, Black Dice. Hisham’s photography and video reflect both his RISD education and his outside-the- norm musical endeavors.

Kim Schifino, from the band Matt and Kim, exhibits linoleum and wood cut-outs that juxtapose everyday scenes with bored superheroes in a whimsical palette. Kim has been featured at Cinders Gallery. Nathan Gwynne’s work also works with a tension of opposites: his assertive and rebellious characters embody the possibility of failure or dissolution at any moment.

A native of Iceland, Thordis Adalsteinsdottir has been featured at The Reykjavik Art Museum and 101 Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland, as well as Stefan Stux Gallery and Dandruff Space and Shroud in New York. Her work has been described as seeming both animated as well as hieroglyphic while not belonging entirely in either world.