Tag: FirstFriday

Plack Blague aka Raws Schlesinger is a multimedia transgressive fetish and leather artist and musician based out of Lincoln, Nebraska. With a focus on cruising, posturing and self examination, Plack Blague exhibits arousal with sexual attitude and homoerotic confidence. He’s just another man on the street…. Plack Blague will be showing a collection of photographs, screen prints, and polaroids!

Larry Buller::Queer voices are often ignored, marginalized or distorted by the dominate culture. I find agency in creating ceramic work which at once challenges these narratives and probes the viewer to question previously held beliefs about the nature of sexual identity, masculinity and fetish objects. Towards that end, I draw upon the humble medium of clay for my admittedly subversive intentions. Ceramics, with its rich historical language and domestic connotations, offers one endless freedom for creative expression. I find inspiration in “high-brow” ceramics typically found in museum collections as well as “low-brow” tchotchkes encountered at thrift stores. My work is a blending of both and seeks to question what might be considered to be in “good taste.” I create plaster molds of fetish objects which are then slip cast into multiples, glazed and embellished with floral decals, gold luster, fur, and fake gemstones. When complete, they resemble showy domestic tableware. Displaying these objects in public bring them “out of the closet” thereby demystifying their use and celebrating their beauty and implied function.

I also create work that focusses on the manner in which gay men self-identify and classify themselves into categories in online hookup sites and/or adopt a persona. These distinctions often revolve around sexual preferences and one’s penchant for top, bottom or in some cases one’s versatility. These predilections are often communicated digitally through the use of emojis such as the peach (bottom) and the eggplant (top). I appropriate the emoji symbol and create ceramic forms that take inspiration from historic examples found in Asian funerary altars. Elaborate compotes hold these peaches and eggplants and become ostentatious centerpieces. To most casual observers these pieces may first appear purely decorative but gay men will immediately understand the double meaning.

My figurines speak to the manner in which some gay men identify with sub-cultures within the gay community. These men may adopt personas such as leather sirs, daddies, puppies, drag queens or otters to name a few. These “china cabinet ready” figurines are of diminutive domestic scale and meant to celebrate the rich diversity within the gay sub-culture and the manner in which gay men seek to find community.

My ceramic work celebrates sexuality, fetish objects and the vast diversity in the manner gay men choose to express their identify and thrive in the face of persistent homophobia.

Here’s the Lineup:

			TBA	The Zoo Bar
			Jen Bockelman	Gomez Art Supply
			Delan Lonowski	Gomez Art Supply
			George Sisson	Tsuru
			Samantha Wicht	Oso Burrito
			Levi Gerlach	Rutabega’s
			Kirsten McCormack	The Coffee House
			Dan Tersptra	Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts
			Ditto Pages	Stella
			Kinzee Hillis	Hillis & Company
			The Glovebox Collective	Ruby Begonia’s
			Masha Nolte	Jake’s
			Carrie Masters	Robot Luv
			Brian Dickinson	Tugboat Gallery windows

“Shag” is an otherworldly color explosion using paintings and a monoprint stencil technique.  Both artists use color palettes that are intended to be theatrical, fantastic and mysterious.

Currently, both artists are residents at the Queer Materials Lab, at Tyler School of Art.

Anna Wehrwein is an artist originally from the Boston area. Shereceived her BS in Art and BA in English/Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Tennessee. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings, Friend of the Artist, and West Branch Literary Journal. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including recent shows at AUTOMAT Collective (Philadelphia, PA), The Warbling Collective (London, UK) the Mint Museum (Charlotte, NC). She was a finalist for the Hopper Prize in 2018 has been an artist in residence at MacDowell Colony, Vermont Studio Center, and Anderson Ranch Art Center. She currently lives in Columbia, MO where she is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Missouri.

Kat Richards is a Philadelphia, PA based artist that works in printmaking, drawing, and fibers. Richards received their B.F.A (2016) in Fine Arts from the University of Kansas and their M.F.A. (2019)