STRINGS ATTACHED: QUEERING PROXIMITIES

Pui Tiffany Chow uses pointed art historical references to examine the female form and the capacity for the canvas to stage them. Her work explores the intersection between abstraction and figuration, interrogates painting traditions in both subject and form, referencing Eastern and Western cultural codes and modes that coalesce into a pastiche of different tempos, feelings and approaches. 

Zackary Drucker is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural producer, and trans woman who breaks down the way we think about gender, sexuality, and seeing. As a filmmaker in documentaries, television, and film, she has directed and produced several notable projects, including The Stroll, Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl, and Enigma, as well as her work on the HBO docuseries The Lady and the Dale and the Amazon original series Transparent.

Rubén Esparza is a multidisciplinary artist and independent curator. He effectively combines his insights from both roles to create intensely cross-referential physical and temporary works of art and exhibitions. His work explores Queer and Latinx histories, existential trauma, and the reconciliation of his heritage, examining the dynamic between the colonizer and the colonized within and in dialogue with the Western art canon. He has extensive studies in art, design, and art history.

Ken Gonzales-Day’s interdisciplinary and conceptually grounded photographic projects consider the history of photography, the construction of race, and the limits of representational systems. His “Sharing Space” series of portraits contemplates visibility, presentation, and perception while celebrating the beauty and resilience of diverse creative communities in Los Angeles.

Jonathan VanDyke is a visual artist working at the intersection of painting and performance, with an emphasis on a queer, collaborative, and embodied practice. His sewn paintings emerge through complex and prolonged processes of accumulating, mark-making, and piecing from personal experiences.

Jwan Yosef is a conceptual painter who deconstructs materials, language, and figuration. Through an examination of representational imagery—spanning personal and familial photographs, sports stills, and publicity images of public figures—Yosef exposes the evolving constructions of identity and belonging.