SMALLTOWN BOYZ
As a young gay man who moved to New York in 1989, I was profoundly impacted by the rampant gay and trans bashing, no doubt motivated by an explosion of AIDS-fueled homophobia. This series examines the era’s violence against gay, lesbian, and gender-nonnormative individuals by employing cultural archetypes like drag queens, or Harlem vougers, all bearing visible signs of brutalization in the form of floral motifs, which serve as a symbolic nod to the flower’s historical connection with homosexuality—the use of “pansy” as slang, the florist stereotype, etc. Exhibited at Mash Gallery, Los Angeles, June 2024.
ENLIGHTENED BEINGS
A collection of avatars that describe the awakening of the spirit and the path to enlightenment that gained tremendous groundswell in the late 1960s and that has lasted well into contemporary times. Exhibited at Mash Gallery, Los Angeles, July 2022.
ALDEBARAN
A fictional planet made famous in a Rolling Stones song. Aldebaran is an ideal world where racial boundaries do not exist, napalm is a harmless substance, pills are not addictive, and ski season is year round. A monochromatic examination of 60s era idealism.
Bacchanal
Not since pagan Rome has there been an era as giddily hedonistic as the glittering 1970s—a time when the relentless pursuit of pleasure became society’s raison d'être. Studio 54’s infamous man-in-the-moon-with-a-coke-spoon, along with the RORER 714 Quaalude, become core icons around which this louche 70s narrative unfolds. Christian symbolism, juxtaposed with debauched archetypes like vampires and diablos, foreshadows the conflict between hyper-morality and sexual freedom that resulted a few short years later with the AIDS pandemic. Exhibited at Mash Gallery and the W Hotel Los Angeles, February 2020.
