“To be Gorgeous, strictly speaking, is something in itself. To be Gorgeous therefore is admirable, to be Absolutely Gorgeous most desired.” So begins an essay in one of the many zines in the Brooklyn Museum’s Jimmy DeSana: Submission exhibition, which is joined by the museum’s concurrent Thierry Mugler: Couturissime show in advocating for skin-deep/skin-tight beauty. … Continue reading
Is it possible to look back to that gold lamé-draped, handlebar moustache-wearing, disco-dancing, cruising post-Stonewall era of the 1970s without the lens of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which would irrevocably alter the course of LGBTQ life? Can you look at artwork, photographs and other documentation from that decade without searching for the images and names of those who would disappear in the decades to come? Or of the others who would become continual caregivers to friends and lovers? Or the clubs, bathhouses, piers and others spaces that would be shuttered for fear of transmission? Continue reading
Who would have guessed Lady Bunny would become a central figure in MoMA PS1’s monumental survey exhibition Greater New York? Rejecting the survey exhibition trap of only showing the hottest, youngest and, let’s be honest, often underwhelming emerging artists, this year’s Greater New York takes a look at New York art in 2015 through lens … Continue reading
Photographer Benjamin Fredrickson’s current exhibition at Daniel Cooney Fine Art further reveals the power of photography to not only document but also to break taboos. Continue reading
Photographer Jimmy DeSana’s shocking yet beautiful images, often avoided due to his highly sexualized and subversive content, are not often found between the pages of publications on art and queer culture, in exhibitions on queer portraiture or adorning posters for mainstream Pride. Continue reading