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Does no good deed go unpunished? Theft and vandalism cast a shadow over this exhibit that in part benefits AIDS/LifeCycle. But there is a happy ending.
On Sunday, March 4, Phil Tarley, curator of the Round Hole Square Peg LGBTQ photography show, opened West Hollywood's Long Hall Gallery and found it vandalized. Josef Jasso's Dita Von Teese and Jeremy Lucido's Dollar Bills, both hung on the exhibition's prestigious Wall of Fame, were gone. West Hollywood sheriff's officers searched the park and found the stolen art stashed in the bushes behind the gallery. The thief was never apprehended. Tarley spent the rest of the day straightening up the gallery, touching up the paint on the walls, but happy to have the art back for the photography show's closing night benefit.
"Round Hole Square Peg" will have its St. Patrick's Day closing night reception benefiting AIDS/LifeCycle from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Long Hall Gallery in the center of West Hollywood's Plummer Park. Painter-photographer Miguel Angel Reyes, whose Folsom Street Muscle Party photograph hangs on the Wall of Fame, is inviting everyone to dress up or dress down in their hottest St. Paddy's day greens, and Miguel will shoot them with sexy leprechaun man-prop Jon Vaz Gar.
"Round Hole Square Peg" is a juried international photography exhibition — an ongoing quest to discover original visual concepts for our changing society. This is the show’s third bi-annual edition. The current show has 59 artist-photographers presenting 69 works, from nine countries, making this one of the largest LGBTQ group exhibitions ever staged and a delightful, quintessentially queer event.
A portion of all closing night sales will go to AIDS/LifeCycle, which raises awareness and provides a life-affirming experience for people with HIV/AIDS. A cyclist from AIDS/Life Cycle team will be on hand in his St. Paddy's Day greens and best tricked-out bicycle.
Photo art sales will be handled by artist and television-drag personality Sham Ibrahim. Mixmaster Paul V. will be spinning and refreshments will be served. See more news stories and the opening night live feed on Facebook.
Photo art sales will be handled by artist-television-drag personality, Sham Ibrahim. Mixmaster DJ Paul V. will be spinning for the night. Refreshments will be served. Admission is free. Closing night will also include a cycling display from one of the riders from AIDS/LifeCycle, dressed in his riding St. Patrick’s Day greens.
Phil Tarley is a fellow of the American Film Institute, a member of the Photographic Arts Council and an artist member of the Los Angeles Art Association. He curates exhibitions in Los Angeles and writes about contemporary art for Fabrik Magazine. In 2014 he founded Round Hole Square Peg, a biennial international survey of LGBTQ photography shown at the Photo LA and other queer venues in Los Angeles. His personal series of LGBTQ political and ethnographic videos is housed in the permanent collection of the New York Public Library and has screened in film festivals and museums such as the American Film Institute and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. In 2009, under his nom de porn, Phil St. John, Tarley was inducted into the Gay Porn Hall of Fame for his 20-year producing and directing career. His writing and photography have also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the LA Weekly, The WOW Report and American Photo Magazine. His book, Going Down On Cuba: Notes from an Underground Traveler, is slated to be published in 2018 by Fabrik Press. Read Phil Tarley's photography blog The Critical Eye.
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