Queer Constellations: Photographs from the Aronowitz Family Collection
Details
Queer Constellations: Photographs from the Aronowitz Family Collection is a sweeping exploration of identity and artistic lineage, presenting major photographs by and about queer artists. The exhibition celebrates a transformative gift of 50 photographs to the Columbus Museum of Art from the Columbus-based Aronowitz Family and significantly expands beyond it with an additional 100 works from the Aronowitz Family Collection.
The exhibition borrows its title from Andrea Geyer’s Constellation series, where the artist transforms archival images of women by collaging them to create kaleidoscopic photographs about connection and visibility. With works ranging from the early 20th century to the present, Queer Constellations considers how photography has been used to portray queer life and identity in the United States. It features works by contemporary photographers including Catherine Opie, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Shikeith, and Wolfgang Tillmans, alongside photographers of previous generations, such as Peter Hujar, George Dureau, George Platt Lynes, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, and Robert Mapplethorpe. By weaving together photographs from different time periods, the exhibition argues that queer histories of photography are constellatory: layered, refracted, relational, and continually rewritten.
The salon-style display of Queer Constellations evokes personal archives and everyday acts of arranging photographs through which queer histories have often been collected and shared. The installation, therefore, invites the viewer to read images through their own perspectives—for, as Vince Aletti argues, “Queer is in the eye of the beholder.” Queer Constellations is organized by Vince Aletti, independent curator and writer, and Kaitlin Booher, William and Sarah Ross Soter Associate Curator of Photography, with Rae Root, Roy Lichtenstein Curatorial Fellow.
Artists: A.L. Steiner, Ajamu X, Alvin Baltrop, Amos Badertsher, Andrea Geyer, Andreas Sterzing, Andy Warhol, Arne Svenson, Arthur Tress, Barbara Hammer, Bruce of LA, Camilo Godoy, Carl Van Vechten, Carlos Motta, Catherine Opie, Chivas Clem, Christopher Makos, Clifford Prince King, David Armstrong, David Wojnarowicz, Duane Michals, Emil Cadoo, Erwin Olaf, George Dureau, George Hoyningen-Huene, George Platt Lynes, Gerard Ferkel, Herb Ritts, Herbert List, Hunter Reynolds, Ian Lewandowski, Jack Pierson, James Klosty, Jason Byron Gavann, Jim Novak, Jimmy DeSana, Joan E. Biren, John Dugdale, John Edmonds, John Waters, Lola Flash, Lucian Clergue, Lyle Ashton Harris, Marion Scemama, Mark McKnight, Mark Morrisroe, Martine Gutierrez, Michael Harwood, Mickalene Thomas, Nan Goldin, Paul Smith, Peter Hujar, Ren Hang, Reynaldo Rivera, Richard Avedon, Robert Giard, Robert Mapplethorpe, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Ryan McGinley, Sam Contis, Shelby Sharie Cohen, Shikeith, Slava Mogutin, Stanley Stellar, Stephen Barker, Tim Greathouse, Tyler Mitchell, Wilhelm Von Gloeden, Will McBride, Wolfgang Tillmans, Zanele Muholi
Curators: Kaitlin Booher, Vince Aletti
With Paul Mpagi Sepuya (artist)
Cost: Free to Pass Holders in October, venue members, and children 3 and under. General admission: $20 adults; $18 seniors; $16 students and children 4–17