Queer Love at Stephen Friedman Gallery, New York
April 17 – May 21, 2025
Images courtesy of Stephen Friedman Gallery and Olympia Shannon
Queer Love at Stephen Friedman Gallery is a look at historical gay relationships alongside the reflections of modern queer artists. The show focuses on the uncovered works of British artist Duncan Grant (1885–1978). Grant’s drawings, on display in the first room of the exhibition, depict gay sex between various men. These drawings, which Grant had left in the care of a friend, were thought to have been destroyed because of their illicit content. Grant made these sketches in the 40s and 50s when gay sex was still illegal in the UK (not decriminalized until 1967). Grant’s sketches are put in conversation with works of contemporary queer artists: Soufiane Ababri, Leilah Babirye, Anthony Cudahy, Kyle Dunn, Alex Foxton, Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Wardell Milan, Sola Olulode, Tom Worsfold and Jimmy Wright.
Duncan Grant’s works are erotic to the point of being pornographic, even though contemporary audiences might find them blasé compared to the content that is available now. The drawings express raw sexual acts, often with a kinky flair of acrobatics or sensual clothing, with little left to the imagination. Their openness is what makes them radical and engaging. The sketches are also very minimal and gestural, as well as many in number, suggesting that these sorts of work were a part of Grant’s regular practice, even if they were kept mostly for personal use.
Unfortunately, Queer Love still mirrors some of the hegemony of dominant society. Most of the work represents a narrow view of queer identity, with much of it centering cis gay relationships, rather than the expansiveness of queer identity. This focus is large enough to make the artists outside of white cis gay men feel like tokens. Queer Love severely lacks transgender perspectives and gender nonconformity. Queerness is made to be inclusive and challenge hegemony, which is difficult to do from within institutions. Additionally, the kind of representation that the show needed comes from artists who are more likely to be precluded from the industry as a whole because of their lack of access. From the exhibition opening, it was apparent that the art on the walls did not represent the diversity of all of the people who came to see it.
The artist whose work most closely represents the theme of queer love was Jonathan Lyndon Chase. Their works mimic Grant’s not only in their gestural style, but also in their explicit depiction of queer sex. Chase’s paintings represent the sexuality of people with bodies outside of traditional beauty standards: people of color, fat people, and gender expansive people, including people who are all of these at the same time. Embracing those who are outside the societal norm and honoring intersectionality is the crux of queerness.
While the show, as a whole, may not have completed its objective of comprehensively representing queer love, the individual works were strong. In particular, Kyle Dunn’s portrait, Wilshire draws in the viewer with its masterful use of Trompe-l’œil. The realism of Dunn’s painting makes the surreal elements of the balancing apples stand out. The painting has the feel of being in medias res, emphasized by the silhouette of the smoking person in the background. Dunn creates mystery around the events being depicted because of the anonymity of the characters whose faces have been left out of the frame, and focuses on sexuality and finding power in vulnerability by making the subject’s nude body the focal point of the piece.
Queer Love is a particularly poignant show because of the current re-criminalization of homosexuality and transgender existence in the U.S, and the federal defunding of HIV research and prevention. While the exhibition is not a comprehensive look at queer love, it shows viewers that queer people have always existed and fought for our rights to live and participate in society. Curators must remember to put the most marginalized members of the queer community at the forefront of queer conversations because they are the ones who are most vulnerable to discrimination and hate, and most affected by backwards law making.
