13 LGBTQ art shows worth traveling for this spring

13 LGBTQ art shows worth traveling for this spring

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With queer travelers gearing up to carefully jet off on global holidays again in the coming months, we scoured the world’s top museums to find the best springtime exhibitions by and about LGBTQ artists. Many long-anticipated shows that had been postponed by the pandemic are now on full display, spanning the spectrum from emerging artists’ big-museum debuts to major retrospectives of revered art icons. From Austria to Australia, London to Los Angeles and Brazilian art in Berlin, these are our picks for the 13 shows not to miss this spring.

Francis Bacon: ‘Man and Beast’

Royal Academy of Arts, London

“Head VI,” 1949
“Head VI,” 1949Francis Bacon / The Estate of Francis Bacon

The son of a horse-breeder — and openly gay in an era when his sexuality was illegal — Francis Bacon had a lifelong fascination with animals and primal instincts, which shaped his uniquely raw approach to painting humans and beasts alike. Both are highlighted in this show that spans Bacon’s 50-year career as one of the 20th century’s most influential artists.

The exhibit is open through April 17.

Kehinde Wiley: ‘The Prelude’

National Gallery, London

“Prelude (Ibrahima Ndiaye and El Hadji Malick Gueye),” 2021Kehinde Wiley / Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and Galerie Templon, Paris

Best known for his gorgeous portraiture of Black people — including President Barack Obama’s official portrait — Kehinde Wiley turns here to another realm, landscape painting, and once again uses Old World motifs to exquisitely portray people of color.

The exhibit is open through April 18.

Patrick Kelly: ‘Runway of Love’

De Young Museum, San Francisco

Patrick Kelly’s Fall/Winter 1989–1990 advertising campaign
Patrick Kelly’s Fall/Winter 1989–1990 advertising campaignOliviero Toscani / Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Estate of Patrick Kelly

Seen here in its first West Coast appearance, this exuberant show celebrates the life and work of groundbreaking Black fashion designer Patrick Kelly and explores his many influences, including his experiences in the gay scenes of New York and Paris in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

The exhibit is open through April 24.

‘Being Muholi: Portraits as Resistance’

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg, 2007
Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg, 2007Zanele Muholi / Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York & Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town/Johannesburg

For more than a decade, Zanele Muholi has been capturing the beauty and vulnerability of Black LGBTQ people in their native South Africa through deeply moving photographic portraits — which, as this show reveals, have also been used as a powerful form of activism to confront issues like identity politics and Black queer visibility.

The exhibit is open through May 8.

Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo)

Jerome AB: ‘At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing’                    

J.J. Adams: ‘Flowers in Temporary Hands’

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland

Installation view of the Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland in 2022.
Installation view of the Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland in 2022.Field Studio

Winner of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland’s biannual Toby’s Prize, Brooklyn, New York-based artist Puppies Puppies (also known as Jade Kuriki Olivo) opted to share her prize experience with Los Angeles-based artists Jerome AB and J.J. Adams, culminating in these three simultaneous shows that explore and honor queer lives of color.

All three exhibits are open through June 5.

Barbara Kruger: ‘Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You.’

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Forever), 2017
Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Forever), 2017Timo Ohler / Courtesy of Barbara Kruger and Sprüth Magers

The largest and most comprehensive exhibition of Barbara Kruger’s highly influential work in 20 years, this LACMA show includes pieces spanning four decades, from her single-channel ‘80s videos to more sophisticated digital productions, all exploring themes of consumerism, pop culture and the effects of instantaneous media.

The exhibit is open through July 17.

Lauren Halsey

Seattle Art Museum

Installation view of the Lauren Halsey exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum in 2022.
Installation view of the Lauren Halsey exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum in 2022.Natali Wiseman

Lauren Halsey’s SAM installation, like most of her work, celebrates Black culture by merging themes of community and imagery from her native South Central Los Angeles with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and architecture. Halsey will also create a site-specific installation for the roof garden of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art this summer.

The exhibit is open through July 17.

‘Encantadas: Transcendental Art From Brazil’

Schwules Museum, Berlin

“Encantadas. Transcendental Brazilian Art.”L* Reiter/Schwules Museum

Curated by a young Brazilian collective with three trans curators, “Encantadas” presents the work of seven artists from north and northeastern Brazil whose works and life narratives revolve around “mystical cosmovisions,” all in search of original Latin American identities.

The exhibit is open through July 18.

Raúl de Nieves: ‘The Treasure House of Memory’

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

Installation view of
Installation view of “The Treasure House of Memory” at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston in 2022.Mel Taing

New York-based multimedia artist Raúl de Nieves created a body of interconnected works for this ICA show, including several of his trademark densely adorned sculptures that reference costumes from traditional Mexican society as well as drag, ballroom and queer club cultures.

The exhibit is open through July 24.

‘Queer: Stories from the NGV Collection’

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Untitled #4, 2015
Untitled #4, 2015Hoda Afshar

The permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, gets a fresh and comprehensive examination through a queer lens, revealing some 400 works that span historical eras and a wide spectrum of media to express queerness as an expression of sexuality and gender, a political movement, a sensibility and an attitude.

The exhibit is open through Aug. 21.

Wolfgang Tillmans: ‘Sound Is Liquid’

Mumok, Vienna

“The Spectrum / Dagger,” 2014Wolfgang Tillmans / Galerie Buchholz, Maureen Paley, London, David Zwirner, New York

Wolfgang Tillmans’ work has long focused on people, their relationships to each other and their connections to things around them — all of which have changed in recent years as our lives have become more mediatized. This Mumok show reflects on spatial restructuring and changes in the media landscape, as seen through the lens of Tillmans’ photography.

The exhibit is open through Aug. 28.

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