Tracing Intimacy in LGBTQ Communities

Ian, 2017-2018. Archival Pigment Print. ©Elle Pérez, Courtesy of 47 Canal, New York

Self-portrait, 1975. Gelatin Silver Print. ©The Peter Hujar Archive, LLC, Courtesy of Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Gail and Dale (Best Friends), Point Lobos, (Gail and Dale), 2008. Archival Pigment Print on Cotton Rag Paper. ©Katy Grannan

Devin in Red Socks, 2016. Digital C-Print. ©Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Courtesy of the Artist

Untitled, 2007, by Stephen Irwin. Altered Vintage Pornography. Courtesy of INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, New York

4:04, 2010-2016. Archival Pigment Print. ©Richard Renaldi, Courtesy of the Artist and Benrubi Gallery, New York

Peter (Brooklyn), 2018. Inkjet Print. ©Bryson Rand, Courtesy of the Artist

And, wrapt in clouds, 1917, 2010. Cyanotype. ©McDermott & McGough, Courtesy of Cheim & Read, New York

Interim Couple #1164, 1994. Gelatin Silver Print. ©Bill Jacobson, Courtesy of Julie Saul Gallery, New York

Clifton, 1981. Gelatin Silver Print. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, used by permission

A Portrait (_DSC8333), 2016. Archival Pigment Print. ©Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Courtesy of the Artist, Yancey Richardson, Team Gallery, and Document

Through August 24, 2018, Intimacy, a candid exhibition featuring more than 70 artworks that together trace the presentation of intimate relationships over the course of 40 years, is on view at Yossi Milo Gallery. Intimacy, which incorporates painting, photography, sculpture, installation and works on paper, focuses on the 1980s through the early 1990s, and the present decade. These two timeframes are marked by dramatic social change: The former by the tragedy of the AIDS crisis, the latter by increasing public acceptance of LGBTQ-identified communities and medical advances in the fight against HIV/AIDS. “In these two periods, the exhibition links disparate formal and conceptual approaches to themes of love, loss, and interrelation,” writes the gallery in the press release.

Photographers in the show include Peter Hujar, Nan Goldin and David Wojnarowicz, three artists who reflect their autobiographical experiences in their work. Portraits by George Dureau and Robert Mapplethorpe expose personal relationships shared with their models off-camera. Jack Pierson and Lyle Ashton Harris make deeply personal work exploring their queer experiences. These photographers became key figures, inspiring the younger artists in the exhibition. Wolfgang Tilmans and Katy Grannan emerged in the 1990s and 2000s, creating work that rely on their own relationships. Tilmans and Grannan, in turn, served as touchstones for the current generation of photographers like Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Kia LaBeija, Elle Pérez, Bryson Rand and Paul Mpaigi Sepuya.

Intimacy, curated by artist and writer Stephen Truax, “connects two specific art historical moments in which artists turned inward to their own lives and their intimate relationships as their subject.” Truax’s essay, “Young Queer Artists are Trading Anguish for Joy,” inspired the show.

Intimacy
Yossi Milo Gallery
New York City
Through August 24, 2018