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Pictured: "Radiant Tomboy"
“Big Brothers at SPARC: A Celebration of Historic Gay Bars in LA” launches July 27, from 5 —7 p.m. This event is inspired by their current gallery exhibition: "Tomboys by Christina Schlesinger". Tomboys features a vibrant collection of artworks that explore gender and identity.
The exhibition debuts a slideshow of photographs Schlesinger took in local gay and lesbian bars in the 1970s, including Big Brothers on West Washington, now known as Abbot Kinney Boulevard.
To celebrate Schlesinger's work and the history that inspired it, we are bringing the spirit of LA's historic gay bars into our gallery. The evening will include poetry readings, music, an open beer-and wine bar, and the unique opportunity to learn more about the Tomboys exhibition from the artist herself
Poets include Eloise Klein Healy, Dinah Berland, Deborah Lott, Eric Gordon, Danyeli Rodriguez Del Orbe and more. This is bound to be a great celebration of gay bars in 1970s L.A.
"Tomboys" features a collection of over twenty mixed media oil paintings by Schlesinger that examines the intersections between gender, identity, fashion, sex, and representation. Schlesinger's body of work explores self-portraiture, feminist nudes, and lesbian sex.
It fills a void of lesbian imagery in art and revisits a time in the artist's life where she felt empowered and brave. Schlesinger started at Cal Arts in the Feminist Studio Workshop and left to paint murals across Los Angeles.
Feminism and activism have been core to Schlesinger's work since she co-founded the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in 1976. Learn more at sparcinla.org/durongallery
