Queer Eye Photo Exhibition will be on view from June 1st to June 30th, with an opening reception on June 14th from 6-9pm. X Gallery is located at 163 Malcolm X Blvd (Lenox Ave) at 118th Street. The opening is Free with Registration Here.
Buck Angel by Lola Flash
portraits of pride
A ‘Queer Eye’ exhibit highlights perspectives on LGBTQ life
By TIFFANY MOUSTAKAS
Posted
In ‘Triangle,’ Oscar Rivera throws away preconceived notions of queer people’s sexuality and identity.
Courtesy of Oscar J. Rivera
Lola Flash Gabriel Garcia Roman Lisa DuBois
By TIFFANY MOUSTAKAS
There’s no one way to be gay.
That’s the message “Queer Eye” wants to highlight for LGBTQ Pride Month — a joint exhibition from the X Gallery in Harlem and En Foco, a photography nonprofit that supports photographers of color.
It features four artists — Lola Flash, Oscar Rivera, Lisa DuBois, and Gabriel Garcia Roman — who have their own perspective when it comes to recognizing the LGBTQ community.
“Queer Eye” is on display throughout June in celebration of Pride, a commemoration of the riots after a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan on June 28, 1969.
“Queer Eye” is a way to bring attention to all of the things the LGBTQ community has accomplished so far, said DuBois, who also happens to be X Gallery’s curator.
“I think celebrating those milestones is really important, especially in a time like today when we’re dealing with losing our democracy and all sorts of political implications,” DuBois said.
Her series, “Beauty Queens,” is a collection of portraits taken at the Imperial Court of New York’s annual “Night of a Thousand Gowns” gala. It features famous faces like Candis Cayne, the first transgender actress to play a transgender character on prime-time television. In each portrait, DuBois used the pattern of each dress and made it part of the photo’s background.
Helping the community
But each artist brings a unique flair to their work.
Lola Flash’s “Legends” series highlights trailblazers in fields like acting and advocacy who have become trendsetters for young people.
“They’re doing something to help the community,” Flash said, “even if it’s just the way that they look.”
While working on “Legends,” the one thing Flash took away was seeing how much of a big heart each person has. It’s something she wishes she could communicate with her photography in order to get rid of the negative stereotypes associated with the LGBTQ community.
“We do not get seen in a beautiful light,” Flash said. “We’re always seen as some type of outcast, drug addict, homeless, someone who’s been killed.”
Through her work, Flash hopes people see her subjects in the right light.
“The more we’re out and the more that people see how beautiful and happy and nice we are, then maybe people won’t feel the need to kill us,” she said.
“Legends” is an ongoing project which takes Flash to London this month to photograph more people to get that well-rounded idea about what LGBTQ and race issues are like in other countries.
“For me, it’s important to look at the global approach,” Flash said. “I think that’s part of the reason why I can never finish anything because there are so many places to go.”
From all walks of life
Meanwhile, Oscar Rivera, exhibitions director at En Foco, uses his work to focus on queer people of color and the differences between sexuality and sensuality.
While he was a student at the Parsons School of Design, Rivera had a teacher with preconceived notions of who people were and where they were from based on how they looked. That inspired him to create “Triangle,” a series that throws all of those ideas out of the window.
“I thought that I would make a series of work that stripped all of that away and gave people an opportunity to define themselves,” Rivera said.
In the three years since he started the project, Rivera has photographed and interviewed 20 people about their experiences as a person of color in the LGBTQ community. “Triangle” is especially important to Rivera these days because, as a self-identified queer man, he believes queer people of color need to be visible, heard and desired more than ever.
“We’re never the leads, we’re never the romantic interests,” Rivera said. “So it’s hard to find that part of yourself when the rest of the world is telling you that you’re a freak, or that you don’t fit in anywhere.”
“Triangle” is another ongoing project, and Rivera feels like he’s only scratched the surface.
“It’s been a labor of love, but it’s been really rewarding because some of the models have become friends of mine,” he said. “There are people who just come in for the shoot and then leave, but you keep a piece of them with you.
“And as the work continues to grow, you can see the impact. So it’s not a project that I’ll be done with anytime soon.”
Gabriel Garcia Roman shares a similar sentiment when it comes to artistic impact with his project, “Queer Icons.” Roman started by just photographing LGBTQ individuals in his community, but quickly shifted it to include activists and community organizers who were making social and political strides.
“They’re really the saints of the community because they’re going above and beyond their duty as humans for the betterment of the community,” Roman said.
‘Special’ engagement
He believes it’s important to highlight these “Queer Icons” in order to let others who look like them know that they’re just as special.
“If you don’t see yourself highlighted, then you don’t really feel like you’re worthy,” Roman said. “So if you see yourself or somebody that looks like you as a saint, or as somebody that’s worthy of being in a museum, being in a church, I feel like it gives power to that person.”
En Foco will continue to champion for LGBTQ people of color long after “Queer Eye” and LGBTQ Pride Month, Rivera said, by highlighting queer photographers in the next edition of its journal, Nueva Luz.
For him, “Queer Eye” was only the beginning of a new chapter for the nonprofit.
“It’s our first foray into really representing marginalized communities within communities of color,” Rivera said.
And with a week left for “Queer Eye,” DuBois wants people to come to the show with an open mind.
“I hope that people who may not be in the LGBTQ community come in and see something they’ve never seen before and learn about gay art, art that has been inspired in that direction,” DuBois said.
“We just want everyone to absorb the work, enjoy it, and use their own interpretation to see what they get from it.”
"En Foco is a nonprofit organization that nurtures and supports contemporary fine art and documentary photographers of diverse cultures, primarily U.S. residents of Latino, African, and Asian heritage, and Native Peoples of the Americas and the Pacific," Bill Aguado, the director of En Foco, tells us.
"X Gallery is dedicated to participating in the cultural development of Harlem through the exhibition of art and photography," curator Lisa DuBois says. "We strive to create an environment where local people and foreigners of every background can be touched by the beauty of art. We are committed to exhibitions and programs that will strengthen and sustain our community."
X Gallery is located at163 Malcolm X Boulevard at 118th Street, New York. Queer Eye runs June 1-June 30, with a reception June 14 from 6 to 9 p.m.
Lola Flash, Legends: Bill Coleman. Read about Lola Flash below.
Lola Flash, Legends Artist statement
These are the people who spearheaded a movement that wasn’t a given. They are actors, advocates, DJs, performers, and much more. They are the trailblazers who presented an honest vision that clashed against societal norms, as we knew it. They were not trendy, but instead are “trendsetters.” These actions alone placed them in harm’s way; due to homophobia, they could have been killed. But they were the lucky ones. And, many decades later due to their combined struggles and persistence, our queer and non-gender conforming communities can finally begin to live in their own skins. We are being acknowledged within institutions; as the legal system begins to give us long-overdue rights in the workplace, equality in marriage policies, gender-free lavatories, and in many places, even school children are able to generate their chosen pronoun.
This transparent progress has been issued in with the guidance of these icons’ refusal to be anything other than themselves. They were not complacent; instead, they lived and still live their lives, often fighting daily battles of homophobia, transphobia, racism, and sexism. Although we are still demanding equality, the state of affairs has changed dramatically, because of these folks. There is definitely a progressive mindset, in America that is clearly in place. Where there was once no canon, each LEGEND in their own beautiful way has harnessed a pride that transcends hate. They made it possible for the LGBTQ+ communities to not only survive but to live a life of love. LolaFlash.com
A public art installation and gallery exhibition that pays homage to Harlem’s cultural legacy, “Cultural Diversity” by SaveArtSpace & X Gallery launches the week of July 2nd at Gallery X. Curated by Lisa Dubois of X Gallery, and Ademola Olugebefola of Dwyer Cultural Center, the exhibition will feature the works of artists including photographer Ceres Henry, painter Tiffany B Chanel, and graphic designer/illustrator Rod Sanchez. During the week of July 2nd, public art installations in the form of mock advertisements will pop up at bus stops around Harlem. The gallery exhibition element will mount at X Gallery during the entire month of July with an opening reception Wed. July 11th, 6-9pm.
Lola Flash 
Gabriel Garcia Roman 
Lisa DuBois 
