WE ARE HERE
LGBTQIA+ voices in the contemporary metals community
JUN. 4 – SEP. 10, 2023
image: Danielle Attoe, Dual Focus, 2021. Silver, brass. Courtesy of the Artist. Photo courtesy of Joseph Mougel.
“We have to do it because we can no longer stay invisible. We have to be visible.
We should not be ashamed of who we are.”
— Sylvia Rivera, “Queens in Exile: The Forgotten Ones”
For centuries, explicitly queer voices have been excluded from conversations surrounding culture, politics, and art despite their physical presence in these different spheres. Although progress has been made, LGBTQIA+ individuals struggle to have their identities and experiences acknowledged. We Are Here seeks to correct this disparity by elevating and celebrating contemporary LGBTQIA+ voices working in the metal arts community today.
Jurors matt lambert, Al Murray, and Lawrence Matthews worked to select forty works of art from twenty-six metal artists across the country. Together, these pieces forge a fuller narrative of the metal arts community.
JURORS
matt lambert
matt lambert is a non-binary, trans, multidisciplinary collaborator and co-conspirator working towards equity, inclusion, and reparation. Their practice is based in polydisciplinamory, entangling making, writing, curating, collaborating, and performing. lambert is currently a PhD candidate in craft at Konstfack (Stockholm, Sweden) in philosophy in artistic practice in visual, applied and spatial arts. lambert collaborates with multi-media artists of a vast array of disciplines to reconfigure the current cultural systems of queerness and body politics while challenging the boundaries of craft.
Al Murray
A Development professional and social justice organizer, Al uses creativity and connection to work toward equity and justice. Al has spent almost 20 years working with non-profits in the South, where they are passionate about mobilizing resources to grassroots organizers and amplifying the voices of Southern Queer artists. At home they operate a small metalworking studio and have adventures in the mountains of Western North Carolina with their adorable twins and beautiful wife Rebecca.
Lawrence Matthews
Lawrence Matthews is an artist from Memphis, TN working in music, photography, painting and filmmaking. His exploration of photography has focused on areas and moments within black communities in Memphis that have been greatly affected by gentrification, systematic disenfranchisement and city planning. As the former program director, gallery director and curator of TONE (2019-2021), Matthews has led impactful programming and exhibitions providing opportunities for black artists in the Memphis area.
FEATURED ARTISTS
Adam Atkinson (he/they)
Danielle Attoe (she/they)
SULO BEE (they/them)
Lesile D. Boyd (they/she)
*Funlola Coker (she/they)
J Taran Diamond (them/them)
Corey Drew (they/them)
Joy Fire (she/her)
Elsa Hoffman (she/her)
Everett Hoffman (he/they)
Andrew Kuebeck (he/him)
Andy Lowrie (he/him)
Jae Mancarella (they/them)
Liz Markum (they/them)
Robert Thomas Mullen (he/him)
Wyatt Nestor-Pasicznyk (he/him)
Jacob Phillips (he/him)
Hosanna Rubio (they/them)
*Danielle Shum (she/her)
Savannah Smith (she/her)
Andrew Thornton (he/him)
Kevin Vanek (he/they)
Vinny Verburg (he/him)
Mallory Weston (she/they)
Elliot Winter Papp (he/him)