Tom of Finland: Inventing Queer Art

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, and Graeme Flegenheimer (El Club Detroit) present "TOM House: The Work and Life of Tom of Finland," opening Thursday at Mike Kelley's Mobile Homestead at MOCAD.

The exhibition will feature work by Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen, Finnish, 1920-1991) and incorporate artists who supported and admired his work over the years, including Richard Hawkins, Robert Mapplethorpe, Raymond Pettibon, Jim Shaw, and John Waters. The presentation will also include photographs, reference materials, and ephemera.

Tom of Finland's drawings -- remarkable not only for their masterful rendering, but also their fantastical representation of the male form -- have been long celebrated for their radical role in broadening the popular understanding of queer experience in art. Placed in context with the work of his peers, the assemblage of these artworks engages a sensational narrative, one that helped define a generation.

The exhibition will remain on view through May 19.

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Detroit, MI 48201