The Gayest Exhibitions for Pride
Pride is our favorite month of the year. June kicks off summer and then the girls, the gays, and the theys take to the streets to celebrate. We know pride is 365 but here is a roundup of queer excellence in art across the globe.
Lyle Ashton Harris
Our first and last love
Queens Museum in New York
On view from May 19—September 22
Lyle Ashton Harris’ works are raw and visceral. his newest series ‘shadow works,’ including the piece below, are meticulously crafted from photographs, Ghanaian funerary textiles, shells, pottery, and locks of the artist’s hair. Harris’ work has always centered on the intersection of his Queerness and Blackness. His examination of tenderness and intimacy within his communities lends a melancholy air to these pieces and that is gay af.
Lyle Ashton Harris, "Succession", 2020, Ghanaian cloth, dye sublimation prints, and artist’s ephemera. Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Mortimer and Sara Hays Acquisition Fund, 2023.4. Courtesy the artist.
Mickalene Thomas: All About Love
The Broad in Los Angeles
On view from May 25—September 29
Mickalene. thomas. bell. hooks. need we say more? With more than 90 works from Thomas, the exhibition’s themes and title pull from bell hooks’ iconic work “All About Love.” Both of these artists focus on love as a healing journey, which will ultimately lead to our collective liberation. We’re tired of ‘Love is Love’ when the Black queer community is in real danger. Thomas demands that Black women be seen and understood as ‘practitioners of love.’
Image Credit: Mickalene Thomas, Din avec la main dans le miroir et jupe rouge, 2023. Rhinestones, acrylic, and glitter on canvas mounted on wood panel. © Mickalene Thomas
Jeffrey Gibson:
the space in which to place me
US Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
On view from April 2o—November 24
Jeffrey Gibson has skyrocketed to the top of the international art scene and all that work has culminated in his presence at the Venice Biennale. Even though this exhibition began before Pride, it’s clear that Gibson’s queerness is on full display and we love to see it! Gibson has always drawn vibrant inspiration from his identity as a Queer person of Choctaw and Cherokee decent, focusing on beadwork, messages of liberation, and traditional native textile pattern-making.
Installation view of the space in which to place me (Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibition for the United States Pavilion, 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia).
From left to right: IF NOT NOW THEN WHEN (2024); The Enforcer (2024); WE WANT TO BE FREE (2024); Mural: WE ARE MADE BY HISTORY (2024)
Photograph by Timothy Schenck.
The Plural of He
The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York
On view from March 15—july 21
the Leslie-Lohman Museum is the preeminent space for queer art and community building. LLM commissioned five new works by artists Llanor Alleyne, Leasho Johnson, Ada M. Patterson, Devan Shimoyama, and Natalie Wood, with additional works by Richard Fung and amber williams-king, that explore the life and work of Trinidadian-American poet, Colin Robinson (1961–2021). Known informally as the godfather of the LBTQIA+ movement, Robinson worked his entire life for queer liberation from NYC to the Caribbean, and that legacy is something to celebrate and reflect on.
Richard Fung, Untitled (For Colin) (still), 2020. Video. © the artist.
Superfunland: Journey Into the Erotic Carnival
The Museum of Sex in New York & Miami
Ongoing
Carnivals have been queer-coded since their inception. In The Museum of Sex’s iconic rotating exhibition, superfunland, you can play 13 erotically-charged games that will delight and titillate its visitors. What’s the point of Pride if we can’t get have a little fun ;) With heavy hitters like RuPaul and Droog designing works we recommend a trip this Pride to experience illicit thrills from a lost world.
‘Stardust Lane,’ courtesy of the museum of sex.