THE PIERS: Art and Sex along the New York Waterfront

reporter: Miguel Dominguez

Curator Darren Jones, art historian and scholar of Queer Studies Jonathan D. Katz, curator Jonathan Weinberg and Charles leslie of the Leslie Lohman Museum

As the first gay and lesbian art museum in the world, the mission of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art (LLMoGLA) is to exhibit, preserve and foster the creation of gay and lesbian art and artists which speak directly to all facets of the gay and lesbian experience, such as political, historical, romantic and social imagery. The Piers: Art and Sex along the New York Waterfront exhibit, which opened on April 3rd, met most of the criteria above in one of the most popular exhibitions The former Leslie-Lohman Foundation ever had.

The Piers: Art and Sex along the New York Waterfront is the first museum exhibition to focus exclusively on the uses of the Hudson River docks by artists and a newly emerging gay subculture. It presents over 70 works of art that demonstrate how the gay liberation movement-- spurred by the 1969 Stonewall riots--transformed the cultural and social landscape of New York. For the first time such seminal works of the New York avant-garde as Vito Acconci's Untitled Project for Pier 17, Gordon Matta-Clark's, Day's End and David Wojnarowicz's Rimbaud in New York, will be shown alongside little known photographs of the gay cruising scene by Leonard Fink, Frank Hallam, Lee Snider, and Rich Wandel.

Charles Leslie of the Leslie Lohman Museum with
Stanley Stellar, LLMoGLA's official photographer

This exhibition has become such a success, daily attendance is triple the average of what LLMoGLA usually sees at its premises. As a matter of fact, on May 1, LLMoGLA announced it was extending the exhibit till July 7th, with a closing reception on the 6th. The Piers of the 70s are a major part of New York, nay, American Queer History, so please, expose yourself to the exhibit of the most liberated subculture in the decade of the "Sexual Revolution," when the word AIDS only meant multiple forms of help.

Uzi Parnes

Shelley Secombe

Frank Hallam

Ivan Galietti

Stanley Stellar

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art began as the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation,founded by Charles W. Leslie and Fritz Lohman, and for more than 20 years has supported gay and lesbian artists.

To see more photos of this event, click here