Curatorial Statement

Why is queer art necessary? Why is its presence in the contemporary art world an ever-telling testimony needed now more than ever? Queer Sentiments: The Evolving Spectrum will answer these questions as I explore, expand and elaborate on four key themes: community of practice, identity expression and visibility, celebration of history/queer archives and curatorial activism. Queer artists, curators and institutions are captivating audiences’ attention as exhibitions and unique narratives are being put on display across the country. From coast to coast, queer activists and people of the public are building on the foundation of ‘saving the queer past for the queer future.’[1] The most important thing to keep in mind about these exhibitions is that not only are they reclaiming history, building stronger communities and exercising creativity as a form of activism; but the majority of these artists are coupling these intentions to address issues of racism, sexism, generational trauma, religious attitudes, immigration and just about every issue dismantling America’s social, economic and political climate. Queer Sentiments: The Evolving Spectrum features seven different exhibitions and art series across the United States within the past ten years:

Faces and Phases, February 26 – April 6, 2013, Yancey Richardson Gallery 

God Answers Knee Mail, August 19 – October 1, 2016, Atlanta Photography Group Gallery

Trigger: Gender As A Tool and a Weapon, September 27, 2017 – January 21, 2018, New Museum

Do I Look Like A Lady, October 16 – February 6, 2017, MOCA Grand – Los Angeles

Trisha, July 12 – August 28, 2018, Ace Hotel Downtown NYC

NOBODY PROMISED YOU TOMORROW: 50 YEARS AFTER STONEWALL, May 3 – December 8, 2019, Brooklyn Museum

Forging Territories: Queer Afro and LatinX Contemporary Art, June 20 – November 3, 2019, San Diego Art Institute 

A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.[2] The LGBTQ+ community is certainly broad in its differences, but it can be said that the community as a whole faces struggles in their everyday lives that may separate them from those in the hetereo-cis community. In all cases, the main elements of a community practice are: the domain: members are brought together by a learning need they share [how to dismantle stereotypes and reclaim their personal narratives], the community: their collective learning becomes a bond among them over time (experienced in various ways and thus not a source of homogeneity) and their practice: their interactions produce resources that affect their practice [public exhibitions, demonstrations of solitary and justice].[3] In the Faces and Phases exhibition, South African artist Zanele Muholi uses the medium of photography to inform the black queer (lesbian) community to inform, document and strengthen the South African LGBTQ+ community. 

Identity expression and visibility is perhaps the most pertinent theme in Queer Sentiments since there are narratives told from nearly every perspective. In God Answers Knee Mail, we experience religion from the eyes of a southern, gay couple living in the bible belt captured by a bisexual woman photographer who is calling to question the negligence of the church narrative. Vivek Shraya recollects her intergenerational ties to her mother as a Trans, South Asian immigrant living in Canada in the series, Trisha.[4] Themes of displacement and longing to be apart are quite common – but instead, these artists are creating powerful works that are shrinking spaces for negativity and sorrow by revisioning their knowledges through beautiful imagery and visual poetry. 

Three words. Marsha P. Johnson. What better way to honor the legacy of the woman who lit the path for justice and amplified the voices of millions of transgender women of color and homeless LGBTQ+ youth than to celebrate the beauty of queer liberation in NOBODY PROMISED YOU TOMORROW: 50 YEARS AFTER STONEWALL? Twenty-eight contemporary LGBTQ+ artists, decorated the Brooklyn Museum with films, drawings and protest sign that buckle into history of an archive that pays homage to those who fought for queer community, through thick and thin. Legacy. Relationships. Power. This exhibition is not only a survey of young queer artists, however, but a reclamation project for gender-nonconformists and people of color: groups that have been largely excluded from LGBTQ+ history.[5]

“How can we get people in the art world to think about gender, race and sexuality, to understand that these are persistent concerns that need action?” Maura Reilly poses in her book ­Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating.[6] The answer is simple, employ curators who genuinely represent and cultivate the work they are and composing. Forging Territories and Trigger are either curated by members within the LGBTQ+ and POC community or in full, transparent collaborations with them. Curatorial activism is bigger than the single voice behind the art scene but also about how curators and the institutions they represent foster accessible, educational and welcoming spaces to their immediate communities – no matter the scale of the museum or gallery.

Because the LGBTQ+ community is so diverse with a sundry of untold narratives, Queer Sentiments: The Evolving Spectrum is the perfect landing ground for these works to be honored and available to the communities which they represent. Together, these seven showcases tackle, dismantle, heal, memorialize and feed the future of this ever progressing community of creators, thinkers and doers. 

[1] Brazil, Kevin. “The Uses of Queer Art.” The White Review, Oct. 2018, www.thewhitereview.org/feature/uses-queer-art/.

[2] “What Is a Community of Practice?” Edited by Team BE, Wenger-Trayner, 28 Dec. 2011, wenger-trayner.com/resources/what-is-a-community-of-practice/. 

[3] Cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. By Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William Snyder, Harvard Business School Press, 2002 

[4] Colucci, Emily. “The Top 10 Queer Art Moments of 2018.” Them., Them., 21 Dec. 2018, www.them.us/story/queer-art-moments-2018.

[5] Vogel, Wendy. “‘Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall.’” ARTnews.com, 15 July 2019, www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/nobody-promised-you-tomorrow-review-stonewall-50-brooklyn-museum-62703/. 

[6] Lippard, Lucy R., editor. “Chapter 1: What Is Curatorial Activism.” Curatorial Activism towards an Ethics of Curating, by Maura Reilly, Thames & Hudson, 2018.