Author: Joseph Abbati

These assemblages are an extension of the “Queeries” series made with different inlaid wood veneers stained with acrylic paint.

Senator Scott Wiener and Joseph Abbati, Curator, host an online photographic exhibit celebrating fifty years of Pride. “SF Pride 2020 – 50 Years” features nine San Francisco Bay Area photographers and film makers with over 900 photographs and seven films spanning five decades documenting San Francisco Pride parades and events.

The photographers include: Arthur Tress, Gooch, Ron Williams, Tommy Wu, Darryl Pelletier, Jim James, Rink Foto, Rich Stadtmiller, and Charles Roseberry. Each photographer brings a wealth of history to create a narrative about the celebration of LGBTQ+ lives at our San Francisco Pride parades from the 1970s to 2019.

This is the golden anniversary of SF Pride for the LGBTQ+ community. There is still more education needed to pass our history down to future generations and to not forget where LGBTQ rights started from and where we are today. This is a document for us to reflect how far we have come. We celebrate the strong will of our community which has fought hard and showed the world that “we’re here, we’re queer,” and we haven’t finished claiming our human rights.

“Jock,” 2020, acrylic on canvas, 24″ X 24″ was part of an exhibit at Gallery 110 in Seattle, WA titled “Eros, C’est la Vie.”

Each year the Castro District of San Francisco pays tribute to its gay hero and icon Harvey Milk celebrating his birthday with windows of art.  This year I contribute a painting titled “Icon” which is hanging in the window of Stut at 470 Castro St. throughout May, 2020.

“Icon”, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 24″ X 24″

Window at Strut

Window at Strut

Window at Strut

The shelter-in-place has given me time to work and experiment on new paintings.  These studies are acrylic on 12″ tondo wood panels following the series I started titled “Queeries.”

On Wednesday April 8, 2020 I was part of a panel talking about “Fighting Back | Lessons From AIDS For Covid-19: Art and Artists in Pandemic.”  The other speakers included Terry Beswick (moderator); Executive Director of the GLBT Historical Society, Lenore Chinn; a painter, photographer and cultural activist, E.G. Crichton; an interdisciplinary artist and emerita professor of art at the University of California Santa Cruz, Katie Conry; Executive Director of the Tenderloin Museum, and Leo Herrera: a Mexican self-taught visual artist, activist and writer based in San Francisco.

A video of this Zoom conversation is available by clicking here: https://youtu.be/7Q8cHaff3g8

A video tour of the “Queeries” exhibit at Strut in San Francisco.

Merchandise based on the “Queeries” paintings are now available on Redbubble.  Go to JAbbati.redbubble.com to view.  You can order prints, home decor, clothing and other items there.  If you have a request for something you don’t see contact me and I’ll upload it.

“Queeries” is Joseph Abbati’s inquiry on the masculine figure and forms of expression from a queer point of view. Masculinity is a social construct, not a gender.  Its definition in the queer community has a different context from the prevailing social heteronormative canons. The paintings in this exhibit reveal masculine forms depicting queer identity, kinks, and beauty. 

Opening reception Friday, March 6, 2020, 8-10pm at Strut, 470 Castro St, San Francisco, California 94114.

https://www.facebook.com/events/191847968862211/