Online Exhibition and Los Angeles Pop-Up: for love, for art, and for being

UTA Artist Space

Online Exhibition and Los Angeles Pop-Up:
for love, for art, and for being

June 5, 2024 – June 26, 2024

Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 5, 6:30pm – 8:30pm

Online Exhibition Live June 5 - 26

Pop-Up Exhibition Open June 5 - 8

Pop-Up Gallery Hours: Thursday - Friday 10am - 5pm,

Saturday 11am - 4pm

Presented at SEKRIT Studios | 923 E 3rd Street, Unit 111, Los Angeles, CA, 90012

(BEVERLY HILLS, CA – June 5, 2024) – UTA Artist Space is thrilled to announce the opening of for love, for art, and for being, an online exhibition curated by UTA Artist Space

Senior Director Harrison Tenzer, celebrating queer artistic expression in honor of Pride Month in partnership with UTA client Elliot Page. The online exhibition is live from June 5 - 26 and a majority of artworks are on view at SEKRIT Studios in Los Angeles from June 5 - 8.

In a world where conformity often reigns supreme, this exhibition boldly defies the norm, spotlighting the myriad forms of expression embraced by queer artists. From painting to photography, abstraction to figuration, each piece serves as a testament to the rich complexity of queer identity. This exhibition is more than just a showcase of artistry, it's a call to action for unity and solidarity within the LGBTQ+ community. To this end, a portion of the sale proceeds will be directed towards the Trans Justice Funding Project, empowering trans communities across the United States and amplifying their voices in the fight for justice and equality.

The exhibition’s title originates from scholar Jack Halberstam’s seminal text, The Queer Art of Failure, which explores alternatives to conventional understandings of success and expression in a heteronormative society. Repudiating a hegemonic approach to queer aesthetics and identity, this exhibition shines light on artists that turn to diverse media and styles to showcase their unique perspectives.

The exhibition showcases the work of 18 artists, including Alex Anderson, Steven Arnold, Amy Bravo, John Brooks, Chris Cortez, Alannah Farrell, Wesley Harvey, Robert Indiana, Khari Johnson-Ricks, Mario Joyce, Jamie Nares, Savana Ogburn, Utē Petit, Ernesto Renda, Adam Liam Rose, Francisco G. Pinzón Samper, Zoe Walsh and Mia Weiner.

The exhibition features artists from across generations, including the estates of Robert Indiana and Steven Arnold. Robert Indiana began his career ensconced in queer community, and while appearing as slick Pop Art to many viewers, his works contain coded references to both historical queer artists and writers as well as his contemporaries. As a multi-disciplinary artist with Surrealist’s eye for proliferating detail and protégé to Salvador Dalí, Steven Arnold used photography, costumery and set design to transform his subjects, often members of his community, into gods and goddesses—winged, crowned, and levitating.

Jamie Nares employs various media to explore physicality, motion, and the unfolding of time. In the 1980s, Nares began to paint using brushes of her own manufacture to create monumental strokes that appear almost three dimensional in their detail and depth, recording a gestural passage of time and motion across the canvas. Similarly, Adam Liam Rose turns to abstraction to create internal psychological landscapes exploring the idea of safety. Zoe Walsh creates abstracted landscapes that center the aesthetic of trans subjectivity, offering openings out of the entrapments of the gender binary, drawing from Warhol’s use of the silkscreened multiple as a method of deconstruction.

Alex Anderson uses the delicate medium of ceramic to explore the intersections of the sublime experiences that make up both the man-made and natural worlds, as well as deeper, more complicated issues of race and cultural representation. Responding to the historical textile, Mia Weiner hand-weaves intimate declarations that explore identity, gender, and the psychology of human relationships. Challenged with ancestral conflict, the complications of international relations and her physical and cultural distance from her home of Cuba, Amy Bravo's paintings seek to build an impossible utopia in the vague outline of the country and to reconcile the family – found, queer or blood relatives.

Khari Johnson-Ricks explores Black movement traditions and queer fellowship through a unique process of painted cut paper installation. Mario Joyce’s

mixed-media works interweave elements of heavenly bodies, celestial landscapes and organic matter, symbolizing a quest for tranquility amid the tumultuousness of life as a Black individual in America. His works often include soil sourced from his childhood farm, symbolizing an ancestral connection. Also concerned with the intersection of land and ancestry, Utē Petit explores Black-Indigenous land-based traditions and the creation of 'Ailanthaland,' a free Black nation of heavenly beings conceptualized using drawings, quilts, installations, farming, and cooking.

Alannah Farrell presents queer individuals through a lens of understanding and connection, a context shielded from a society eager to erase or enact violence. John Brooks similarly depicts queer figures to explore themes of identity, memory, death and place while considering questions of contemplation, the expression of emotion and the transformative power of particular experiences. Chris Cortez uses their own body as the subject of their work with references to pop culture and history to form personal Queer Mexican representation through painting, drawing, dressmaking and performance. Francisco G. Pinzón Samper breaks down the traditional boundaries between the canon of art history and contemporary queer iconography. Grappling with the profound impact of perception on internal identity, Pinzón Samper deftly collages together symbols, patterns, and icons of the cultural canon, exploring a life that transcends sexuality and gender binaries. Ernesto Renada explores the impact moving-image media has on visual culture and contemporary modes of witnessing through the process of frittage, overlaying film stills and original images.

Wesley Harvey mixes photos from 1960s male physique magazines, Baroque and Rococo aesthetics, with contemporary gay iconography to create multi-media work celebrating gay male sexuality. Savana Ogburn similarly turns to collage, centering femininity, camp, and queerness through the use of bright colors and textures.

Elliot Page will be promoting the exhibition on his social media channels, amplifying the message of the show, the Trans Justice Funding Project’s work and the vision of these queer artists.

“The focal point of Pride Month is centered around authenticity and embracing one’s true self,” says UTA Artist Space Senior Director Harrison Tenzer. “We’re ecstatic that Mr. Page, who exemplifies this journey of self-acceptance, has agreed to share this exhibition with his community and expand the message of queer solidarity. It is an honor to work with him and this group of talented queer artists who continue to push past aesthetic, political and cultural barriers.”

for love, for art, and for being will be live online from June 5-26, with a majority of artworks available for view on display from June 5-8 at SERKIT Studios in Los Angeles.

ABOUT UTA ARTIST SPACE AND FINE ARTS

Since the establishment of its flagship Beverly Hills location in 2018, UTA Artist Space has been committed to showcasing art by globally recognized talent. With the opening of a new Atlanta office and gallery in spring 2023, UTA Artist Space has expanded its impressive vision and reach across the United States. Over the past few years, the galleries have presented notable exhibitions with interdisciplinary artists, curators, and creatives, including The Estate of Ernie Barnes, Mandy El-Sayegh, Enrique Martínez Celaya, Essence Harden and Chloe Chiasson. The UTA Fine Arts team functions as a link between the dynamic worlds of art, entertainment, and brands by connecting leading contemporary artists to opportunities across film, television,digital, licensing and branding. Such projects include the films of Titus Kaphar and Shirin Neshat. The team also engages with various departments across UTA to connect talent andbrands to opportunities within the Fine Arts world.