NBC recently posted an article I got very excited about: “12 must-see LGBTQ art shows around the world”. Of course, one was in Berlin, and the other eleven in the U.S.A. Small world, huh NBC?
So here is our humble contribution. February was LGBT+ History month in the UK, so there were quite a few exhibitions on, but unfortunately have closed or will close soon. If you have any info on any other shows or exhibitions, let us know and we’ll add it to the list!
CANADA
Queering Family Photography
The Arquives, April-May 2019
“Queering Family Photography exhibition is the first to explore how family photographs reflect, shape, and expand queer forms of affective connection and kinship, “
GERMANY
A Change of Scenery
Schwules Museum, April-June 2019
“A Change of Scenery provides an overview of lesbian and gay movements in Germany starting with the persecution of “Sodomites” in the middle ages until the gay and lesbian liberation movements of the 1970’s and 80’s. The exhibition features an installation by Kurt Stark showcasing the history of §175, a law punishing homosexuality which existed in the German legal code in various forms for over 100 years. In relation to §175, the exhibition also highlights the life and work of German sexologist and human rights pioneer Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld as well as his Institute for Sexual Sciences in Berlin which was destroyed by Nazi’s in 1933. At the heart of the exhibition is a section memorializing the gay victims who were murdered at Sachsenhausen concentration camp just north of Berlin. This section shares the stories of gay and lesbians during the Third Reich, and of the lives of those men and women living in secrecy.”
Rainbow Arcade - A Queer History of Video Games 1985-2018
Schwules Museum, December 2018-May 2019
The “Rainbow Arcade” exhibition is the baby of the LGBTQ Game Archive, exploring the queer history of video games from as far back as 1985.
“For the first time worldwide, the queer history of video games will be explored in a major exhibition: Rainbow Arcade…features a wide variety of exhibits spanning over 30 years of media history, including playable titles, concept drawings, modifications written by fans themselves and documentations of online communities. The exhibition will be taking stock of contemporary pop cultural questions of representation, stereotypical and discriminatory narratives in entertainment media, and our cultural memory. For the first time, research by the LGBTQ Game Archive will be presented in a museum.
Thailand
Spectrosynthesis II
Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, November 2019
Spectrosynthesis II will include contemporary artwork from artists across Asia, including Ren Hang, Lionel Wendt, Sunil Gupta, Dinh Q. Le, Maria Taniguchi, Ming Wong, Danh Vo and Samson Young.
Mexico
Caleidoscopio
Centro Cultural Jauría Trans*, January-May 2019
“The mural intervention at the Jauría Trans * Cultural Center is a visual journey where Arlishan Marius looks back on their trans experience, their healing process from traumatic experiences and asserts themselves as a multiple being that combines feminine, masculine, neutral, wounded and resilient states in a same body.”
Callejeras y Revoltosas: 6 Años de Artivismo Feminista – Cuir en la Ciudad de México
Border Cultural Centre, February-April 2019
“In the last 6 years the feminist movement has flooded the streets of Mexico’s main cities, positioning in the public eye the demands of women, queers, trans people and other precarious movements. “Callejeras y Revoltosas: 6 Años de Artivismo Feminista – Cuir en la Ciudad de México” arises from the actions produced by people belonging to the network of artists and activists which have converged in the space of Hysteria! Magazine.”
UK
Queer Spaces: London, 1980s – Today
Whitechapel Gallery, April-August 2019
“How has the changing landscape of London affected the lives of queer people? This exhibition considers the loss of hundreds of community venues around London through market-led redevelopment and how this has changed the capital’s queer scene. It presents work by artists concerned with the disappearance of spaces where LGBTQ+ communities have gathered to socialise, explore their sexuality and try out new identities. “
Queer Looks
Brighton Museum, June-December 2019
“This fascinating display of outfits and oral histories from LGBTQ individuals from Sussex, from the 1960s to the present day, looks at how individuals construct identities, both personal and collective, through dress. Local LGBTQ communities have informed the content of this display, including the comedian Zoe Lyons, journalist Sophie Cook, and trans campaigner Fox Fisher.”
USA
Stonewall 50
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, April-August 2019
“CAMH’s take on Stonewall will look both backward and forward, using the works of 16 queer artists to provide local, national, international and intergenerational snapshots of the continuing struggle for LGBTQ rights. Featured artists include filmmaker Barbara Hammer, painter Christina Quarles and South African photographer Zanele Muholi.”
You gotta go see anything with Barbara Hammer, folks.
Love and Resistance: Stonewall 50
New York Public Library, until July 2019.
“This exhibition illustrates this history through the photographs of Kay Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davies, two pioneering photojournalists, who captured the pivotal events of this era and changed the ways that LGBTQ people perceived themselves. Featured alongside these images are other items from the Library’s vast archival holdings in LGBTQ history, including ephemera, periodicals, and more”
Camp: Notes on Fashion
The Met, May-September 2019
“Camp is the consistently aesthetic experience of the world. It incarnates a victory of style over content, aesthetics over morality, of irony over tragedy,” suggests Susan Sontag in Notes on Camp (1964). Sontag is spiritual fairy godmother to The Met’s Camp costume extravaganza: a celebration of glorious artifice, irony and the tricky line fashion treads in order to be so bad it’s good. Se camper – to “posture boldly” – was a practice born in the French royal courts of Louis XIV and XV. The exhibition opens with a visit to Versailles – a “camp Eden” – before plunging into queer subcultures of the 1890s. All this is a prelude to the fashion displays: an unrestrained celebration of everything OTT, from Christian Lacroix to Viktor & Rolf, Vivienne Westwood to Walter Van Beirendonck.”