Situated on Hollywood Blvd, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) has served as an incubator for queer artistic experimentation in Los Angeles since its founding in 1978. Within the organization’s history is a living queer archive which highlights moments of queer cultural production within LACE’s exhibition and programming history. Gathering artists, curators, and creatives who have contributed to this archive, panelists Cat Jones, Jerri Allyn, Matias Viegener, and Juan Silverio will share their connections to LACE and converse about the archive, as well as the present and future of queer art in Los Angeles.
This program may not be suitable for all ages.
Participant Bios
Cat Jones (Panelist, he/him) is a Los Angeles-based artist whose projects use different mediums to resist western cultural binaries. Black queer artistry is fundamental to these visual and auditory narratives that encourage a sharing of truths that result in healing. Jones was selected as LACE’s 2022 Emerging Curator; he curated the performance series Reclaiming Performance as a Revolutionary Act to highlight transmasculine and nonbinary artists who use their practice to heal, release, and celebrate their lives and importance in our world.
Jerri Allyn (Panelist, she, he, shimm/her), activist artist and educator, explores themes of social justice and community empowerment, often challenging gender norms and questioning power structures. S/He addresses issues related to labor, sexuality, women’s rights, queer rights. Often collaborating, with an interest in civic engagement, s/he works extensively with site-oriented performance and installation art, sculptural tableaus; audio, video and billboards; artists books, graphic multiples and page art. Most of Allyn’s work is in a narrative, storytelling form. S/He strives for aesthetic innovations, incorporating historical facts, community insights, and satiric wit. Internationally exhibited, s/he has been grant-funded and commissioned for 30 years.
Matias Viegener (Panelist, he/him) is a writer, artist and critic who teaches at CalArts. He’s the author of 2500 Random Things About Me and The Assassination of Kathy Acker, editor of I’m Very Into You, the correspondence of Kathy Acker and McKenzie Wark, and co-editor of Séance in Experimental Writing and The Noulipian Analects. He has exhibited and curated art at LACE, LACMA, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, the Yerba Buena Center, ARCO/Madrid, Ars Electronica, and the Badischer Kunstverein. His work has been written about in The New Yorker, salon.com, The New York Times, Art in America, Frieze, Art:21, The Los Angeles Times, Hyperallergic, and The Huffington Post.
Juan Silverio (Moderator, they/them) is a queer/trans femme of Zapotec descent artist and arts administrator in Tovangaar (Los Angeles County). They joined LACE as a curatorial apprentice in 2019 and now oversee all exhibition and programming production.
CREDITSThis program is organized by LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) as part of the 2023 Circa: Queer Histories Festival, presented by One Institute. The conversation is co-presented by the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
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LACE both champions and challenges the art of our time by fostering artists who innovate, explore, and risk. We move within and beyond our four walls to provide opportunities for diverse publics to engage deeply with contemporary art. In doing so, we further dialogue and participation between artists and audiences.
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The Los Angeles LGBT Center is a safe and welcoming place where the LGBTQ+ community finds help, hope, and support when it is needed the most.