Schwules Museum Berlin
\’My painting of \’Heaven New Year\’s Eve 1979\’ is included in \’HIVstories: Living Politics\’ curated by Emily Nicholls with Heiner Schulze at the museum 13. September 2019 – 11. November 2019. \”How are politics and life narratives in the fields of HIV/AIDS activism in Europe entangled? The exhibition “HIVstories: Living Politics” explores different ways of […]
Queer Britain – Queer Museums and Archives
Homotopia in Liverpool have been pioneers in driving debate. At their conference ‘The Un-straight Museum’ in 2014 they brought together a wide cross section from cultural institutions, curators, and archivists in representing marginalised communities and promoting diversity. What emerged from that conference was a picture of (mostly) LGBTQ professionals and activists who were propelling change within […]
Folsom Berlin & the legendary erotic artist Rex
Unnoticed for a generation, a legendary and mysterious figure from the decade after Stonewall has been quietly living in Europe. He is getting an exhibition during Berlin’s Folsom fetish week in September and I’ll be speaking at the opening on the 8th. Before Mapplethorpe there was Rex. Just as Tom of Finland realised and gave […]
1967 and all that… physique era photography exhibition
Model Men I curated the exhibition Model Men to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act. On 27th July 1967 the Act legalised (in England and Wales) gay sex in private . This, rather than Stonewall (1969), began the process that would eventually lead to homosexual equality in Britain. The exhibition was at the Menier Gallery […]
Loch Garten
Christmas in Scotland at the end of 2015 included a trip to Loch Garten. This still expanse of water tinged with red iron ochre from the peat and pine needles cast out the most magical images. Like fishing with a camera, I pointed and then looked to see what I had caught. Absolutely no Photoshop or clever […]
Recent Exhibition – Menier Gallery, 7-19th September
Headspaces The exhibition included both new and older works by myself and friendship works by Robert Taylor and David Jaramillo Klinkert. As a founder member of the Gay and Lesbian Artists group at Brixton Art Gallery in 1983 I recorded the night life of 1980s gay liberation and the painful epoch of loss during the […]
Ossie Clark 1942-96 – The Broken Butterfly
When news of the murder of the dress designer Ossie Clark was announced the stories that followed focused on his heyday and subsequent ‘sad decline’. Obituaries pictured a man slowly spiralling downwards after bankruptcy and a broken marriage. To friends like me who never knew him as the darling of the sixties and seventies this […]
Research
Following on from researching the collection of British erotic illustrator Bill Ward and the subsequent history of LGBTQ artists involved with Brixton Artists Collective for Tate Archive I’ve begun a much bigger project. I am always frustrated that LGBTQ artists work is routinely pigeon holed to Pride week events or AIDS anniversary shows. Usually these are […]
Packaging Collectables
When I moved out of London in 2000 I began to write for BBR, an auction house and publisher based in Elsecar near Sheffield. Built up by Alan Blakeman and his wife Gill, it is the leading specialist in a variety of antique utilitarian packaging and packaging related collectables. The original focus was in the area of […]
