for love, for art, and for being

Curated by Harrison Tenzer in partnership with Elliot Page

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.
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.
This exhibition is more than just a showcase of artistry, it’s a call to action 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.
for love, for art, and for being 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 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.”

 

Please continue to scroll to see all the works in the exhibition along with more information on each artist at the bottom of the page.

 

 

Image Courtesy: Catherine Opie

Alex Anderson

Steven Arnold

Photograph by Don Weinstein

Amy Bravo

John Brooks

Chris Cortez

Alannah Farrell

Wesley Harvey

Robert Indiana

Khari Johnson-Ricks

Mario Joyce

Jamie Nares

Savana Ogburn

Photograph by Ethan Roy

Utē Petit

Ernesto Renda

Adam Liam Rose

Francisco G. Pinzón Samper

Zoe Walsh

Mia Weiner

Jamie Nares

Finding the Line, 2023
Oil on linen
65 x 54 in

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Zoe Walsh

Held in dissolution, 2024
Acrylic on canvas-wrapped panel
60 x 48 in

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Mia Weiner

5:55 (a flash of heat), 2022
Handwoven acrylic, cotton, paper, and silk yarn, raw ruby and 14 carat gold hanuman pendant
43 x 69 in. (82 x 69 with fringe)

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Amy Bravo

The Transplant, 2023
Acrylic, Graphite, Wax Pastel, Collage and
Embroidery
59 x 53 in

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Mia Weiner

tender dreams, 2024
Handwoven acrylic, cotton, and silk
21 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. (27 1/2 x 30 1/2 with fringe)

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Khari Johnson-Ricks

Dual Lift, 2023
Watercolor and gouache on paper
84 x 63 in

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Khari Johnson-Ricks

Mobility Training, 2022
Watercolor and gouache on paper
64 x 85 in

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Ernersto Renda

Octavia St. Laurent (after Paris is Burning, 1990), 2022
Wax pastel on canvas, hot glue on wood panel
12 x 18 x 2.5 in

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Amy Bravo

Stay Soft, 2023
Ink, Graphite, Wax Pastel, and Colored Pencil on Paper
24 x 18 in

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John Brooks

I Know Where Beauty Lives, 2024
Colored pencil on paper
50 x 38 1/2 in

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John Brooks

Romeo in Black Jeans, 2024
Colored pencil on paper
50 x 38 1/2 in

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Alannah Farrell

K (Downtown Los Angeles), 2023
Watercolor, acrylic, and spray paint on paper
16 x 12 in
19 x 15 in (framed)

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Steven Arnold

Dawn ‘s Grotto of Possibilities; They’d Been Fooling with the Columns of Figures, 1991
Silver Gelatin Photograph
9 3/16 x 8 15/16 in
Signed, titled, verso

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Adam Liam Rose

Stages of Fallout (ever new), 2021
Graphite, paint and paper on panel
11 x 14 in

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Adam Liam Rose

Stages of Fallout (grid to crater), 2022
Graphite and acrylic on paper mounted panel
8 x 10 in

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Steven Arnold

The Card Reading, 1986
Silver Gelatin Photographs, Ed. 5/12
14 13/16 x 14 1/6 in
Signed, titled, dated, number verso

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Savana Ogburn

Blu Del Barrio, 2024
Rhinestones and gesso on digital c-prints
14 x 41 ½ x 1 ½ in (framed)
Unique edition of 1/3 +1 AP

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Steven Arnold

Transmitigating Inspiration, 1986
Silver Gelatin Photograph, Ed. 8/12
14 x 14 in
Signed, numbered verso

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Wesley Harvey

Rain on Me Platter, 2023
Terra cotta, slip, underglaze, glaze, decals, gold luster, white resin, gold-glitter resin, gold leaf, archival photo
15 x 20 x 2.5 in

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Steven Arnold

Heal-a-zation Swathe a la Glob Ba, 1985
Silver Gelatin Photograph, Ed. 10/12
14 x 14 in
Signed, numbered verso

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Robert Indiana

(White, Blue, Red), 2008
Serigraph on Saunders Waterford paper
Image size: 38 x 38 in
Sheet size: 45 x 44 in
Signed, numbered, and dated in pencil by the artist
AP 6/12, Edition of 50 + 12 artist’s proofs

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Wesley Harvey

Double Bear/Bare Back Stirrup Vessel, 2022
Earthenware, glaze, glitter, resin
14 x 8 x 7 in

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Utē Petit

Pakanahuili Tapankola, 2023
Watercolor and Gouache With Rusted Metal
Frame
55 x 43 1/2 in.

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Utē Petit

Zaira, 2023
Watercolor, Graphite, Metallic Paint on Paper
With Rusted Metal Frame
12 x 9 1/2 in

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Chris Cortez

A la Venta, 2020
Oil on canvas
36 x 24 in

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Mario Joyce

Dissolve, 2023
soil, vintage collage and oil paint on canvas
8 x 8 in

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Chris Cortez

Miss Messias, 2020
Colored pencil on Bristol
26 1/2 x 20 1/2 in

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Francisco G. Pinzón Samper

Violette D’Urso Casorati Football, 2024
Colored pencil on heavy paper
11 ¾ x 8 ¼ in

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Alex Anderson

Sad Boi Heart, 2022
Earthenware, glaze, gold luster
18 x 17 x 2 in

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Francisco G. Pinzón Samper

Untitled, 2024
Colored pencil on heavy paper
11 ¾ x 8 ¼ in

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Francisco G. Pinzón Samper

Untitled, 2024
Colored pencil on heavy paper
11 3/4 x 8 1/4 in

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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.
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