I finally managed to get over the the Bradbury-Sullivan Center to document my exhibition their and it was a good thing I went when I did. I showed up for the reception and artist talk for the show which I very nearly forgot to go to because of this big move I’m going through right now. The reception for the show was nicely attended I thought given that it was a rainy and cold evening and given the fact that the Bradbury Center is somewhat isolated in Allentown, living as it does on an ally street. The evening was a great opportunity for me to connect to a larger queer community and I was honored to have a couple of my artists friends like Rigo Peralta, Anna Hamilton and Francis Beaty show up.
My reception was held in conjunction with another artist, the photographer Jane Noel. I loved her works, which included photos of herself in different costumes showing how people perceive femininity and masculinity differently depending on age and hairstyle. Jane provided surveys of folks reactions along with her photos which made her works feel like a scientific experiment. The haunting deadpan photos were a fitting compliment to my densely packed works. Deborah Rabinsky, the curator of both shows, choose works from five of my series to display in the show; “The Hotness in Concert”, “The Vixen Virgin Mermaid of the Sargasso Sea”, “Puppet Pal Friends”, “The Deadly Papa Butum” and “Matthew Likes Darkies Best”. Judging by peoples reactions they seemed to like the “Puppet Pal Friends” pieces and the “Matthew Likes Darkies Best” works the most which is encouraging since those works feel the most experimental to me, maybe I’ll make more works like these in the future.
The evening ended with a brief artist talk from both artists in the show. Jane spoke of her inspiration for her photos coming from a negative reaction she got on the street when someone called her a grandma because she wasn’t moving fast enough for them. I spoke about how my works look random but are in fact intensely planned. We both received warm reactions and I ended up selling a “Puppet Pal Friends” piece to Francis Beatty which I was totally floored by. For whatever reason I didn’t expect to sell any works that evening, my mind wasn’t there for it I guess. Anyway I want to thank Francis for the sell and Deborah Rabinsky and Adrian Shanker, the Executive Director of the Bradbury-Sullivan Center, for the show and the wonderful reception evening.
Here are some images of my works from the show. Please forgive the shaky camera I had to get these shots in between people walking around.
Here’s the piece that sold. Its from my “Puppet Pal Friends Say Our and Are” series:
My friend King Rodriguez, who always gives me new music to listen to, is now getting me into dance-hall Reggae music. I’ve tended to shy away from the genera in the past given its homophobia and deep misogyny. But the beats are addictive so I’ve relented a bit on my opposition to the music. Here are a couple artists and songs I like. First is QQ and his song “One Drop” and second is TOK and his song “Bubble Up”.
OK that’s it for now. First Friday was a couple days ago now and I’ll get out a blog of my reactions in a day or so. It was a light night but I had some good conversations from it. Until then do be well.
Anthony Smith Jr. 