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Hal Bromm Gallery
90 West Broadway, New York, NY 10007
Opening Reception: May 22, 6pm–8pm
New York, New York – April 3, 2025 – Hal Bromm Gallery is pleased to present The Queer Show, Part II, a continuation of the gallery’s exhibition series exploring how artists have contributed to modern notions of queer identity. In the exhibition, queer artists subvert the tools of cultural erasure, twisting them into potent acts of reclamation and challenging society’s constructed notions of identity. The exhibition will be on view from May 22 through July 25.
The Queer Show, Part II extends Part I’s (2024) exploration of queer history starting in the 1970s into the present moment, foregrounding recent works, as well as historic works that demand reexamination in today’s social climate, that speak to the nature of queerness in the 2020s across a wide array of media, from painting and sculpture to photography and textiles. Work will be on view by Rajab Ali Sayed, Juan Arango Palacios, Nayland Blake, Chris Cortez, Abbey Gilbert, Nan Goldin, Jay Lynn Gomez, Glenn Ligon, Jean-Paul Mallozzi, Eric Rhein, Moises Salazar Tlatenchi, Richard Taddei (courtesy of Greg Salvatori Galley), Koco Toribio, and David Wojnarowicz.
Over the past 50 years, the word “queer” has become prevalent within culture as both an identity and an ideology. Queer scholarship since the 1990s has sought to shift cultural understanding of non-heteronormative identities by reading against existing material, unearthing the queerness that has been ever-present within culture, yet suppressed. To “queer” something is to understand it within a context of infinite possibilities. Queerness is political, a philosophy, a state of being, a means through which those outside of the heteronormative mode of existence can find community. Queer people, despite being on the margins of society, have always been at the forefront of the avant-garde, smuggling narratives of queerness into the greater canon of contemporary art. The Queer Show, Part II celebrates the legacy of queer artists seeking to develop new modes of expression.
Examining how artists imagine and realize queer futures within their work, the exhibition is centered on the ideas of queer utopia and temporality proposed by author and theorist José Muñoz in his influential book Cruising Utopia (2009). In Muñoz’s work, queer art and experiences can be a framework to radically reimagine a future that defies strict temporality and traditional heteronormativity. The notion of queer temporality—a complication of past, present, and future—is present throughout much of queer theory, as queerness is formulated as something that defies fixity in all dimensions and requires acts of radical becoming and imagining. In The Queer Show, Part II, artists invoke aesthetics of the past as a means of legitimizing and celebrating queer life in the present. They are not simply signaling to a future yet to come, they are already standing in it.
The artists in this exhibition reify queer futures by exploring themes of spirituality, mythology, comfort, transformation, and celebration, bringing to light the undercurrents of queerness within our past and our present. Some invoke aspects of spiritual imagery in their work, such as Moises Salazar and Chris Cortez, establishing a queer presence within an aesthetic tradition often co-opted by normative society as a means of suppressing queer existence. Koco Toribio and David Wojnarowicz employ reference to history and mythology as a means of anchoring their queerness within cultural tradition. Jay Lynn Gomez and Rajab Ali Sayed create scenes that reflect the joy and comfort of queer community, even in the face of tragedy.
In addition to the public opening on May 22, the gallery will host a community-focused party during Pride Month in June, reinforcing its enduring commitment to the visibility and celebration of diverse queer perspectives within the contemporary art landscape. Details will be announced in the coming weeks.
About Hal Bromm Gallery:
A downtown pioneer, Hal Bromm established Tribeca’s first contemporary gallery in 1975, followed by an East Village branch in 1984. Since its establishment, Hal Bromm Gallery has organized historically significant exhibitions in New York City and beyond, presenting and championing the early work of many important contemporary artists, among them Alice Adams, Carlos Alfonzo, Mike Bidlo, Andre Cadere, Rosemarie Castoro, Peter Downsbrough, Joel Fisher, Linda Francis, Luis Frangella, Judy Glantzman, Michael Goldberg, Keith Haring, Suzanne Harris, Paolo Icaro, Derek Jarman, Alain Kirili, Greer Lankton, Nicholas Moufarrege, Richard Nonas, Jody Pinto, Lucio Pozzi, Rick Prol, Walter Robinson, Russell Sharon, Kiki Smith, Ted Stamm, Lynn Umlauf, Jeff Wall, Krzysztof Wodiczko, David Wojnarowicz, Martin Wong, and Joe Zucker, highlighting the creative energy and depth of talent surfacing in Downtown Manhattan throughout the 1970s, ’80s and beyond. For nearly five decades, Hal Bromm’s rich history of collaborating with artists, galleries, museums and institutions on the development and curation of avant-garde exhibitions, has provided meaningful context around storied moments in contemporary art.
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