WE STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE CALLING FOR RACIAL JUSTICE AND AN END TO ALL FORMS OF OPPRESSION. READ OUR STATEMENT
THROUGH MAY 9, 2021
ON VIEW
THROUGH MAY 25, 2021
WATCH FILM THROUGH FEB 28
OCT 18, 2020 - OCT 2021
OCT 7, 2020 - MAY, 2021
![Happy Friday! We’re heading into the weekend with “Lili & Miss Alex” (2020), a photograph by Ruben Natal San Miguel (@rubennatal.sanmiguel). This warm and dynamic portrait which Natal San Miguel took last summer at Coney Island is now part of the #LeslieLohmanCollection! The artist makes what he calls “environmental portraits”, photographing people where they live and in the places they embody. Natal San Miguel sees his photographs as, “a way to have people understand otherness and other beauty; another definition of beauty." (@npr, 2021).
“Lili and Miss Alex” currently hangs in the entrance to the Museum welcoming visitors as they arrive. Stop by the Museum today to see this portrait and our two new exhibitions; “LAURA AGUILAR: Show and Tell”, and “DISSOLUTION”. The Museum's new hours are FRI, SAT, SUN, 12-6 pm. Visit the 🔗 in our profile to reserve your tickets.
[Image: Ruben Natal San Miguel, ‘’Lili & Miss Alex'' (Glamourpussies ) 2020. #LeslieLohmanCollection. Gift of the artist.]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/148950128_717775638931485_5986698806659448118_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=i3Y5PdVVTZwAX8VSVMv&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=291b393049b278ccadfad038f54944bf&oe=604E9D29)
![#SavetheDate! FEB 19-21 Leslie-Lohman Museum Queer Theatre & Performance Residency Fellow, Anh Vo (@anhqvo) will be premiering BABYLIFT: a no recording, no streaming performance. “The act of performing will be its own performance”, remarks the artist.
BABYLIFT is a fragmented and collaged multimedia solo work, written and performed by Vo. The performance combines the terror and pleasure of erotic hauntings and attempts to queer a linear of masculinist history. Named after a 1975 mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam to Western countries, which resulted in a plane crash that killed 78 of those children, BABYLIFT is first a memorial to the unmourned and unremembered.
Sunday FEB 21, 3:30 PM (EST), join Anh Vo for a post-show conversation with benedict nguyễn (@xbennyboo) co-hosted by the Museum and @baxarts. RSVP via 🔗 in profile.
[Image: © Maria Baranova, 2020. ]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/149034460_925677337970820_7325467187647982172_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=U_7T_t5es0oAX8G2DvG&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=754ac992fc07b31723781de8a25a1c66&oe=604EB45E)
![Queer artists have always existed at the forefront of politically engaged artmaking. DISSOLUTION (FEB 6- MAY 25), the two-part exhibition featuring works of art created by the first two cohorts of the annual Leslie-Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship (2017-18 and 2018-19) continues that legacy. These works consider the role of queerness at the intersection of wider social relations, including class and inequality, race, and ecological crisis. Dissolution refers to artistic strategies of negation and undoing, in which representations of hierarchical and normative structures are fragmented, dissolved, or upended, in an act of resistance to the structures of oppression they uphold. Works in the exhibition subvert and reimagine signifiers of masculinity, imagine new forms of childhood, or resist linear narratives of progress. Through this embrace of negation, artists illustrate alternate possibilities and propose radically new ways of being.
Part one of DISSOLUTION (on view through March 13) includes works by Buzz Slutzky (@buzzslutzky), CatalinaSchliebener (@catalina_schliebener), Eric Rhein (@ericrheinart), Gwen Shockey (@gwenshockey), Kiyan Williams (@kiyanwilliams), Kristine Eudey (@kristineeudey), Max Colby (@max_colby), Michael Childress (@tobe3d), Rodrigo Moreira (@rodrigo_._moreira), Vanessa Rondon (@chachispice).
[Image: Kristine Eudey, “wet cold hot dry”, 2019, granite and iron. Courtesy the artist.]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/147475294_786905445508100_6380553417723838044_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=-3UmFsQrWWwAX8KR2-s&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=7021509e176c2c5ffa8ecb9813f9e1ea&oe=604DA4FA)
![“An embrace of the essential idea of transness changes everything because it means there’s no longer an expectation based on the body you were born into, or how your life should play out and how it should end. Traditional family models and structures of control disappear.”
—SOPHIE, @paper, 2018
We’re thinking about SOPHIE Xeon (1986-2021) today. The brilliant Scottish musician, electronic music producer, singer, songwriter, DJ, and trans visionary whose untimely death came as a shock to the LGBTQ+ community one week ago today.
SOPHIE was a true leader of a new sound and an icon of visibility and trans liberation. In their limitless creativity and open curiosity, they truly embodied queerness. In addition to the musical gifts they shared with the world, they lived and imagined the possibility of unrestricted self-determination for future generations.
Our thoughts are with SOPHIE's friends, family. #GodisTrans
[Photo: (c) SOPHIE, “It’s Okay to Cry” video., 2018]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/146450105_3610351685730607_2679075463858828845_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=08ttwCmToR4AX-4b5LJ&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=2e2e5899b60699af91ec3a356872ad5c&oe=604CB03A)
![[First slide]
An apology to Kiyan Williams (@kiyanwilliams)
Last night, I misgendered multidisciplinary artist Kiyan Williams in a special public program organized @leslielohmanmuseum. I am personally accountable for this and personally recommit to efforts to undo toxic heteronormativity. This transgression is unacceptable, as Kiyan trusted that they were entering a space that embodies care and support for transfemme people. And over many weeks, a great effort was made on their part and that of others to make the program meaningful. I am profoundly sorry for my actions and the hurt I have caused.
Laura Raicovich (@lauraraicovich)
——-
[Second slide]
We are committed to making the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art a safe space for transfemme people and people of all gender identities, race, and ethnicity, and we failed you, Kiyan. Laura used the incorrect pronouns, but we recognize that this was not only a personal failing, but a collective one as an institution and an example of systemic devaluing of trans and nonbinary people. We acknowledge that a post does not make up for the harm done or the critical issues of transphobia within the museum and society at large.
——-
[Third slide]
Leslie-Lohman Museum is committed to developing robust projects, programs, acquisitions, and partnerships that center and support the work, ideas, and existence of Black transfemme artists, and we will share our progress with you. Further, as a museum, we are engaged in an iterative process of self-reflection of our own historically exclusionary practices. While we recognize that institutions are often directly responsible for reinforcing the status quo, we have the power to transform our own work and we recommit ourselves to undoing bias of all kinds.](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/146769956_412493909849645_4717776275774431172_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=svrkY80oFSIAX_AJe8N&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=9d7b54aa8b2b16f0364b511c441e605c&oe=604CE83B)
![It is with a heavy heart that we learned the news of the passing LGBTQ+ and social justice activist Carmen Vàzquez (1949-2021). Vàzquez died on January 27th from COVID related complications. This detail is from a portrait of Vàzquez by artist Jo Ann Block which is part of the #LeslieLohmanCollection. Unfortunately, the full and fierce portrait can not be shared due to @instagram’s censorship of nude female-bodied people.
“Change is never about one person alone, there are countless others who paved the way for my activism, and countless others who will follow me and build a bridge to the future…..” said Vàzquez in her speech at the 2020 Creating Change Conference. You can listen to their full speech by following the link in our profile.
Vàzquez was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in Harlem, NY. Among her many accomplishments, Vàzquez was the Founding Director of the Women’s Building in #SanFrancisco, and helped found the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center in San Francisco and the LGBT Health & Human Services Network. She was a founder and principal author of Causes in Common (a national coalition of Reproductive Justice and LGBT Liberation activists). Her essays have been published in several anthologies, and she made scores of keynote presentations at conferences and college campuses across the United States. Vazquez was the Co-Chair of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation Board of Directors and the former Director of LGBT Health and Human Services.
[Image: Jo Ann Block (@joannblock), 2011, “Carmen Vàzquez” (detail), mixed-media collage, Gift of the artist. #LeslielohmanCollection]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/145985755_457089295659198_5346971131463366190_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=8QBQzk6QypQAX9TT6tN&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=3f59124c53d455831e4fc9ba5d1d3a60&oe=604D86BF)
![Did you miss the premier Rashaad Newsome’s (@rashaadnewsome) new performance film, BLACK MAGIC? Not to worry, the film which is part of the artist’s expansive project of the same name, is now available to view at LeslieLohman.org through FEB 28!
The half-hour film is “an undeniable love letter to the Black queer community”, says Newsome. BLACK MAGIC is an uplifting celebration of resiliency and strength. The work documents a live performance that the artist has expanded with the use of motion tracking software and visual effects exploring trans women, their contributions to the Vogue fem lexicon, and the marginalization of the Black queer community.
The artist’s tripartite commission culminates on February 5 with a virtual conversation hosted by the artist with @kiyanwilliams and co-produced with the Museum and @eyebeamnyc. RSVP via 🔗 in profile!
[Image: (c) Rashaad Newsome, BLACK MAGIC film stills, 2021]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/143282046_267186941415253_1580303829427896472_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=a5r66Pb6IlsAX9CjPZv&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=6c20d4077be9dd9da979d9269c9103a6&oe=604C890C)
![SAVE THE DATE! We officially reopen the Museum to the public SATURDAY, FEB 6 with two exciting exhibitions. 🌈
“LAURA AGUILAR: Show and Tell” (FEB 6 - MAY 9), the first comprehensive retrospective of photographer Laura Aguilar (1959-2018), assembling more than 70 works produced over three decades. Throughout her practice, Aguilar disrupted normative concepts of beauty and the female form while specifically utilizing the gendered body as a site for social critique.
~AND~
“Dissolution”, part one of the two-part exhibition (FEB 6 - MAY 25). This group show features works of art created by the first two cohorts of the annual Leslie-Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship 2017-18 and 2018-19. The Fellows come from disparate backgrounds and engage in equally divergent art practices, and their artwork presents a multitude of positions within contemporary queer identity.
We look forward to welcoming you back to the Museum’s physical location on FEB 6. 🔗 in profile to reserve your free, timed tickets!
#LeslieLohmanMuseum
#LauraAguilar #LeslieLohmanArtistFellowship
[Image: Laura Aguilar, “Plush Pony #15”, 1992, © Laura Aguilar. Collection of @vpam_arts and @lacma.]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/142174936_766374827419238_6494445587029150983_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=1WS-oP6mC6cAX8d9ouu&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=72cf365c7de3ca188a122a39c20997ce&oe=604EA7AF)
![TONIGHT January 22, 8pm (EST)💥join us for the premiere of a new film by artist Rashaad Newsome (@rashaadnewsome) on LeslieLohman.org! The film is the final element in Newsome’s tripartite project, BLACK MAGIC which began with @tsqarts’, “Midnight Moment” and will culminate in a virtual event with Kiyan Williams (@kiyanwilliams), in collaboration with @eyebeamnyc, Feb. 5, 6PM (EST).
“My work, as long as I have been making it, is an undeniable love letter to the Black Queer Community,” says Newsome. “Black Magic” is a striking, uplifting celebration of resiliency and strength. The sleek, unfolding film documents a 2019 live performance that Newsome has “expanded” and activated with the use of motion tracking software and dazzling visual effects. Organized into three acts, the film explores trans women and their contributions to the Vogue fem lexicon; the five elements of Vogue fem, including hands, catwalk, floor performance, spin dips, and duck-walking; and how the marginalization of the Black Queer community has led to systemic oppression, violence, and instability. Yet Black Queer people resist, creating space for creativity, community, and joy. Newsome refers to this resistance as Black Magic.
“Black Magic” features an original score by Newsome that is an amalgamation of several live performances, where the artist uses two Nintendo Wii's to play and manipulate his score, while a gospel choir, Gregorian chants, live electronic music, live instrumentation, a vogue MC, and an opera singer collide, acting as an operating system to create a new visual and sonic reality.
Head to LeslieLohman.org to watch the film!
#LeslieLohmanMuseum #RashaadNewsome
[Image: (c) Rashaad Newsome, “Black Magic”, 2020]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/140683731_193886479141653_4828307388225821434_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=njPd9kWl_LkAX_j-0F6&_nc_oc=AQkNSmFQK_z4jaGOSAWqTiPNMc2dL7KowQ-z9JWwIdoh7pz95UvO3OlIuhTrzYJ6Qfo&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=7fda13ec6f055f146f3f77f3ebf10ae6&oe=604D959C)
![Save the date! Friday, January 22, 8pm (EST) LeslieLohman.org! We are excited to premiere a new film by artist Rashaad Newsome (@rashaadnewsome) that celebrates the resiliency and strength of the Black Queer community. The film is the final element in Newsome’s tripartite project that will culminate in a virtual event with the artist, Kiyan Williams (@kiyanwilliams), and Eyebeam (@eyebeamnyc) on February 5 (more info to come).
“My work, as long as I have been making it, is an undeniable love letter to the Black Queer Community,” says Rashaad Newsome. “Black Magic” is a striking, uplifting celebration of resiliency and strength. Organized into three acts, the film explores trans women and their contributions to the Vogue fem lexicon; the five elements of Vogue fem, including hands, catwalk, floor performance, spin dips, and duck-walking; and how the marginalization of the Black Queer community has led to systemic oppression, violence, and instability. “Black Magic” features an original score by Newsome that is an amalgamation of several live performances. The artist uses two Nintendo Wii's to play and manipulate the score, while a gospel choir, Gregorian chants, live electronic music, live instrumentation, a vogue MC, and an opera singer collide, acting as an operating system to create a new visual and sonic reality.
Head to LeslieLohman.org, Friday, January 22, 8pm (EST) to watch the film!
[Image: (c) Rashaad Newsome, "Black Magic", #BTS, 2020.]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/140000437_423518785748920_2899943674044555871_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=C9xk3g3e8Z8AX-NAj3M&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=ad00c548e7f42ef6d382c5d6d423dc02&oe=604F1F96)
![“The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without radical redistribution of political and economic power."
On this #MLKDay we are reflecting the words of civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his speech “The Three Evils of Society” which he delivered in 1967 at the National Conference of New Politics. Some 54 years later this statement feels particular resonance. The stark racial and economic inequalities in our country born largely by Black and Brown, trans and gender non-conforming people, were magnified this past year by a pandemic and a president that used his power to escalate homophobia, transphobia, racism, classism, and systemic privilege. King's words remind us that it is not enough to elect a new administration and fight to undo these injustices, we must also question the structures themselves.
Audre Lorde, pictured here, like many activists including Bayard Rustin, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Miss Major (to name a few) understood the interconnectedness of oppressive power systems and made it their life's work to dismantle them. Leslie-Lohman Museum is committed to their legacies and to using our own institutional power and privilege to amplify BIPOC artists and artists fighting for racial and economic equity.
[Image: JEB (Joan E. Biren) (@jebmedia) "Audre Lorde (Reads her words, Wash, DC.)," 1980, silver gelatin print. Gift of the artist. #LeslieLohmanCollection. ]
#LeslieLohmanMuseum](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/140104145_442242826806643_5306271634711445022_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=U73hm66XWZUAX9qjLa0&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=e64b15ae7463141ee47680f682fc328e&oe=604F3C43)
![Leslie-Lohman Museum condemns the displays of white supremacy, fascism, hatred, and privilege that the Trump administration incited with an attempt to storm the Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. The United States has a long, deep history of white supremacy and privilege—under the guise of democracy—that those who believe in civil rights, equity, and horizontal structures must continue to fight and dismantle by prioritizing and listening to marginalized voices in our government and at all levels of society. The injustices directed at the Black Lives Matter movement protesters over the summer remain indelible, and in stark contrast to treatment and rhetoric perpetuated by law enforcement at the Capitol. What occurred last Wednesday was not a protest, but a planned insurrection by rioters seeking to keep their privilege and power intact. As a queer art museum, Leslie-Lohman is committed to fighting (and supporting artists who fight) the dismantling of unjust and lethal power structures including homophobia, transphobia, racism, classism, and systemic privilege.
#LeslieLohmanMuseum
[Image: Jan Lynch, “Gay Pride March” (1993). Silver gelatin print. © Jan Lynch #LeslieLohmanCollection]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/137565631_1122541688187556_1041226294610779952_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=rxDaxHR0VpMAX8d9pcO&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=b549481d5938052fc74f82e960f685b9&oe=604F2272)
![Recognize this image? In addition to drawing from significant historic figures and sights, Chitra Ganesh (@chitraganeshbkny), in her #QueerPower installation, “A city will share her secrets if you know how to ask” includes references to other queer artists, collectives, and political actions. The duet pictured here, in profile, kissing as they float on a small white cloud references the iconic Gran Fury image from 1989 tilted, “Kissing Doesn’t Kill: Greed and Indifference Do” which featured artists Lola Flash (@flash9) and Julie Tolentino (@thejulietolentino). The original postcard was one of many political art actions that manipulated advertising and media strategies to reach a broad audience with information about the AIDS Crisis. The back of the postcard read “Corporate greed, government inaction and public indifference make AIDS a political crisis.”
Visit Ganesh’s installation anytime day or night, the work is illuminated 24/7 through October 2021.
[Image: Chitra Ganesh, "A city will share her secrets if you know how to ask" (detail), 2020, site-specific #QUEERPOWER public art installation. Courtesy the artist.]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/136751508_1097183567372177_6637035313075017000_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=45AbElUtiNkAX_ARDJt&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=17ce1ad26d1dacef1a7b648727c95baa&oe=604BDB5A)
![Exhibition alert! We’re excited to share that a selection of Patrick Angus' work from the #LeslieLohmanCollection will be featured in a solo exhibition of the artist's paintings and drawings at Bortolami Gallery (@bortolamigallery)! The exhibition “Patrick Angus (1953 – 1992)” opens Friday, January 15, and is on view through February 20, 2021. Head to Bortolami to learn more.
Need an introduction to Angus’ work before seeing the show #IRL? Read this essay by Dr. Ulrike Groos featured in "The Archive" journal (Dec. 2018). The excerpt is from the catalogue published by the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (@kunstmuseumstuttgart) as a companion to Angus’s 2018 retrospective, “PATRICK ANGUS: Under the Surface". 🔗in our profile!
#LeslieLohmanMuseum
[image: Patrick Angus, “Hanky Panky”, 1990, Acrylic on canvas, 40.5 x 54.25 in. Founders’ gift Collection of Leslie-Lohman Museum.]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/135704732_438288120535484_9000585637060955080_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=fWzMr-iPOiwAX8vbhjs&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=e89dd67029b48b10c15d9857ab1afbde&oe=604E52BD)
![Happy first week of 2021! We are excited to begin the new year by announcing our new fellowship cohort. The #LeslieLohmanMuseum Artist Fellowship, now in its fourth year has expanded on centering queer artists of color to include international artists with a focus on artists working in, or hailing from the Caribbean, along side artists from #NYC and the US. Working remotely, this international cohort has already begun to initiate new ways of thinking around their art practice, and currently exploring an art practice operating in different cities, with different cultures.
The fourth Cohort includes Anna Parisi (@aluparisi), Bassem Saad (@bascheme), Eva Wo (@yoevawo), Felicita Felli Maynard (@photofelli), Kearra Amaya Gopee (@kearramaya), Leasho Johnson (@leasho_johnson), Maksaens Denis (@maksaens), Maria Jose Maldonado (@saymariajose), Patricia Cruz (@pecacruz), Po Rodil (@po.rodil), Shikeith (@shikeith), Sinan Tuncay (@sinantuncay), and Vick Quezada (@vickquezada). Stay tuned for more to come.
#LeslieLohmanFellowhsip #LeslieLohmanMuseum
[Image: Leslie-Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship cohort 4, (L-R): Maria Jose Maldonado, Eva Wo, Ana Parisi, Bassem Saad, Kearra Amaya Gopee, Felicita Felli Maynard, Maksaens Denis, Vick Quezada, Po Rodil, Sinan Tuncay, Shikeith, Leasho Johnson, Patricia Cruz.]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/135800345_827835688065446_7017551056634582696_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=5R4p_4ESc4YAX-1ryVR&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=e313de97e6ac584ec3a83dfe8b7254b0&oe=604D1BFB)
![Happy New Year from the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. We would like to close this brutal year by recognizing the continued hardships that our communities have experienced, especially our Black, trans-femme, and gender non-conforming communities. The twin pandemics of 2020 have magnified long-seated racial and economic inequalities that will continue to have a significant impact on those most vulnerable and marginalized for years to come. Through it all, we are so grateful for your unwavering support. Your generosity came in numerous forms; notes of encouragement and appreciation, participation in our virtual programs, fiscal support and partnerships, holding us accountable in the work we do, and, most significantly, continuing to believe in the necessity of a multifaceted queer perspective in art. The virtual gathering spaces we have made since March would not have been possible without the hard work of our dedicated staff and the support of our community.
Your generosity and your participation have kept us motivated. We cannot wait to welcome you back into the Museum’s physical space on February 6, 2021, with the opening of our new exhibitions, “Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell”, the first comprehensive retrospective of photographer Laura Aguilar, and “Dissolution”, which features works of art created by the first two cohorts of the annual Leslie-Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship. Until then we hope you enjoy this festive image by Thomas McGovern to welcome in 2021. Wishing you a happy and healthy, safe, and brighter New Year!
#LeslieLohmanMusuem
[Image: Thomas McGovern, “Drag at Night of 1,000 Gowns, 1991, Silver gelatin print. Gift of the artist, #LeselieLohmanCollection]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/134164618_2802624540057502_8616315963776253533_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=aSAvkEzu7YYAX9CIqhJ&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=00b10553a15a34e7b54d8b3274b90fd7&oe=604E6CE8)
![“It was crucial for me to develop a queer utopia imaginary that was capacious enough to hold the complexity of [our] experiences—as New Yorkers and as citizens of the world— the breadth of joy and suffering at once, to recognize that the ground we stand on is built in equal parts of abundance and violence, of celebration and dissent,” says artist Chitra Ganesh (@chitraganeshbkny) reflecting on her new #QUEERPOWER commission, “A city will share her secrets if you know how to ask”. The site-specific work (on view through October 2021), is composed of 10 window panels that wrap the exterior facade of the Museum with imagery of queer knowledge, protest, survival, and joy. The installation incorporates both historical and speculative imagery to illuminate the queer and transgender histories of downtown #NYC as well as sites drawn from the architecture of Seneca Village, 17th-century Lenape settlements, and structures that have since been violently erased. The installation continues the artist’s commitment to honor femininity and social formations that are overlooked or excluded from mainstream discourses of queerness and race, and queer Asian & South Asian communities.
Ganesh’s installation is one of the few exhibitions we have been able to share this year that can be viewed and experienced safely in physical public space. Please visit the exterior of the Museum anytime day or night, the exhibition is illuminated 24/7, to enjoy Ganesh’s powerful work. AND while you’re here don’t miss Rashaad Newsome’s (@rashaadnewsome) BLACK MAGIC vinyl in the adjacent windows of our Living Room Gallery.
#LeslieLohmanMuseum
[Image: Chitra Ganesh, "A city will share her secrets if you know how to ask", 2020, site-specific #QUEERPOWER public art installation. Courtesy Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. Photo: (c) Kristine Eudey.]](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/134395569_252406242941471_5238645911818371563_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=pai5d5CZVewAX_tjruU&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&oh=ec650fec170842bac953e3d4ee021b93&oe=604D2FB9)