Exhibitions
Footage from the documentary, The Pasaquoyan: The Life and Works of Visionary Artist Eddie Owens Martin, directed by Doug Loggins, c. 1993. In the early minutes of the film, locals near the Pasaquan compound recall encounters with the artist. Courtesy of Georgia Council for the Arts, Georgia Traditional Arts Collection.
Interview with artist Freddie Styles discussing early showings of his work in Atlanta, including a show at the Phoenix Arts and Culture Center, established by the Phoenix Arts & Theatre Company to showcase the work of Black artists. Courtesy of Atlanta History Center, Atlanta's Unspoken Past Oral History Project.
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Announcement of an exhibit featuring King Thackston's work at the Midtown Plaza Galleries in 1997-1998.
Courtesy of Georgia State University. Special Collections, Cal Gough, loaned for digitization.
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Comic book artist Joe Phillips working on a Spiderman cover design at Gaijin Studios, an Atlanta collective of freelance comic book artists operative from 1991-2010.
Copyright Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Courtesy of Georgia State University. Libraries, Atlanta Journal Constitution Photographic Archives.
In the latter decades of the twentieth century and onward, exhibition spaces have allowed artists and organizers to curate visions of LGBTQ+ identity in public view. The AIDS crisis provided a major impetus for organizing exhibits in the 1980s and 1990s for both education and fundraising. In 1989 the group ArtCare, co-founded by Michael Venezia and James Randall Chumbley, began hosting annual art auctions to raise money for AIDS support organizations in the Atlanta area. The next year the Southeastern Arts, Media & Education Project produced an exhibition at the Atlanta College of Art featuring multi-media work by Georgia artists collaborating with people living with AIDS as well as the exhibit “Against the Tide: The Homoerotic Image in the Age of Censorship and AIDS” at the Nexus Contemporary Art Center. The ACT UP (or, AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) Atlanta chapter sponsored “The AIDS Cure Project Art Show” at the King Plow Arts Center in 1994 featuring photography and paintings by Georgia artists including Carlos Gutierrez-Solana, Harriet Leibowitz, Stephan Hillerbrand, Ed Fraga, and E.K. Huckaby. In the twenty-first century, exhibits have been shaped around a variety of queer experiences and expressions. In 2010 Hammonds House Museum’s “Incendiary Exposure: The Works of Daryl Harris & Michael Morgan” showcased work addressing social taboo and homophobia in the Black community. In 2013 “Legendary Children” at Gallery 1526 featured photographs of local drag stars and the “changing face” of the Atlanta drag scene. The 2014 show “Deconstructing Binaries” at Poem 88 dealt with bathroom signage and conversations around gender policing. And Barry Lee’s 2017 solo exhibit “How Nice” at Murmur explored experiences with bisexuality, bi-erasure and ableism. In recent years, artist Cameron Lee and his husband Rigel Gemini have curated and supported multiple queer arts showcases like “SPECTRA” in 2018 and “FABNORMAL” in 2019; and WUSSY Mag has sponsored events like “High Visibility,” a virtual exhibit featuring over 15 LGBTQ+ photographers during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.