At the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, as the rights and lives of LGBTQ+ people continue to be threatened worldwide, the visibility of queer folks — bodies, faces — has never been more critical. It’s with this notion that HERE, a New York organization dedicated to presenting cutting edge artworks in a variety of media, staged its Queer As I exhibition.
On view through June 30, Queer As I is comprised of 50 self-portraits by different artists both established, like photographers Catherine Opie and Jack Pierson, and emerging. From crystal-clear photography to abstracted compositions — the portraiture, an image for each year since the Stonewall Riots, reflects a gloriously diverse range of creativity. “We’re not going back in the closet,” says resident curator Dan Halm. “It was a real honor to get people like Catherine Opie and Justin Vivian Bond to commit to this show right off the bat. It’s a really nice statement when people who have had careers for a really long time are willing to do an exhibition with somebody who is just graduating from Columbia.”
Queer as I, you, and all of us: Scroll on to peruse a selection of the artists’ self-portraits, highlighting the breadth and beauty of the queer community.
A Place For Me, 2019, oil on Arches oil paper
Behold the Man, 2019, oil on canvas board
Pee Soup Me, 2019, oil on canvas
Chip '84, 1984, pencil on paper
Self-Portrait, 2019, quilted cotton with batting
Portrait 02 from the series I hate getting my picture taken, 2018, digital photograph
Beloved Mother, 2016, archival pigment print
Untitled (Self-Portrait 07.08.18), 2018, pigmented inkjet print
Tempo Passa, Morton Street NYC, 2018, cyanotype
Self-Portrait, 2018, marker on paper
That Ground of Conscious Nothing Where The Rose Ever Blooms, 2018, watercolor on paper
Flamer, 2017, archival pigment print
For Interpretation, 2018, gelatin silver print
Still Life No. 1 from the Enigma series, 2015, blue pencil on Mylar
Disappeared, 2018, dry point etching with inkjet chine collé on paper
Self-Portrait with Beer, 2018, oil on canvas
Self-Portrait, 2019, graphite on Rives BFK
Self-Portrait, Gemini, 2019, acrylic on canvas
Untitled (08-24-2015), 2016, oil on canvas
Julie & Pigpen, 2012, pigment print
I Left My Heart in the Mountains, 2018, c-print
Transient, 2019, Swarovski rhinestones and chandelier crystals on antique mirror
Me at Polycow, 1981, silver gelatin print
Mother and I, 2013, archival pigment print
Self-Portrait (Vazquez Rocks Natural Area Park, CA, 2019), archival pigment print
Making the Weather, 2019, video (loop) 10:35
Poseidon's Boy, 2019, porcelain, glass, found doll parts, wood and waxed twine
Self-Portrait (after Marlon Brando), 2016, wet plate collodion
