Little Prints-Queer Youth take on the Universe
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| Queer Youth are carving a sound legacy. Eleven twenty-something artists leave their prints on the world: loves, qualms, lessons, politics, nonsense, and more.
Our work is sexy, subversive, surreal, and sublime, examining embodiment, animality, animation, and eroticism in ink. We are carving new pathways through life and linoleum, and redefining gender and sexuality through refreshing reincarnations. In a class taught by Katie Gilmartin with supplies provided by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, we’ve covered a lot more than good printing techniques; with discussion and peer education, we’ve learned about ourselves and each other, and we started bridging some major gaps in our fragmented queer communities. Join us for a preposterous night of kings, queens, politic-prints, noise, banter, royal creations and non-conformity. Regal attire requested. Studio space generously provided by SOMArts, the South of Market Cultural Center. A Creating Queer Community Commission from Queer Cultural Center funded through the S.F. Foundation.
Biographies A recent transplant to San Francisco, Carey Baldwin grew up in the Midwest before attending New York University in Manhattan. During school Carey made several showcased short films and since graduation has had collage and illustration pieces in several group shows sponsored by the Lowbrow Society for the Arts (a Brooklyn and San Francisco based art collective). Carey currently does freelance art directing and video editing for a paycheck while exploring collage, multimedia, various Instructables, arts & crafts, carpentry, bicycle maintenance, and printmaking in their spare time. Carey has a lot of spare time. Originally from a small beach town in Southern California, Maximilian Xavier Carrillo moved to San Francisco in search of something. Whatever that something is, he may have found it, then again he may not. Either way he’s having a gay old time with the royal ruffians he’s met along the way. He’s addicted to cupcakes, glitter, men, and cute defenseless baby animals. He’s is currently seeking treatment for these depraved vices. Thomas Conch writes, “Aged 5, my body would turn off the lights and close the curtains for lunchtime. The cool of the shadows would make all inscriptions on it fade. Aged 11, my body started to experience its assignment to masculinity. Society was slowly writing down on its skin. Aged 20, my body does not share any identity with its passed ages. Through its voice speak all the ones that it has heard or possessed before.” Katie Gilmartin valiantly attempted to embody the anguished suffering artist, but chronic backsliding forced her to resign herself to a life of delight, abundance, and gusto. She now devotes herself to the redemptive power of pleasure, creating images that celebrate mirth, exuberance, and lust. Her checkered past includes stints as a miserable graduate student, buoyant union organizer, fabulous faux drag queen, bona fide sex researcher, and deeply engaged college professor. She teaches astoundingly enjoyable printmaking classes at Chrysalis Studio in SOMArts, San Francisco’s South of Market Cultural Center, and is co-owner of City Art Cooperative Gallery on Valencia Street. Her work makes an appearance in the Good Vibrations video, “G Marks the Spot,” and can be seen online at katiegilmartin.com. Alan Guttirez writes, “In the Past I have not been an artsy type of guy. Presently, I am studying Sociology at San Francisco State University. So printmaking has been an excellent chance for me to cultivate skills outside of the social sciences. But my love for this art derives from my ability to integrate my passion for sociology into the prints I create.” Jessica is a Boston native, San Francisco transplant, on again off again starving student of art, sociology, boxing, urban planning, animation, and the world. Justin Kyle Lenzi was adopted in Berkeley California and enjoyed a childhood full of questing for questions. At an early age it became his goal to break social norms and avoid conformity at all costs. After high-school he spent time living, working and traveling in other countries. While in Sydney Australia, Justin and his cousin Mattscott Boonson (often referred to as spoon), wrote the “Escape-ISM Anti-festo”. Since the underground release this art/life philosophy guidebook, both Justin and cousin Boonsoon have been creating music, prints, paintings and banter of all kinds. Now in San Francisco, some of Justin’s favorite things include, music composition, chess, politic and social activism, hunting bears (wink, wink), and of course escaping isms. Mike Ojeda writes, “In 1996, I borrowed a cassette tape from my friend entitled: Black Flag, ‘Nervous Breakdown.’ It was my first hurl into the real world, and my first exposure to youthful aggression, expressed through art. The song, a cassette single, was a do-it-yourself guide, full of ‘fuck you’ without apology. I was on the brink of pre-pubescence, in search of many things, and I received a gift that I am forever grateful: a kick in the ass (through my headphones) and a reminder that I could do anything I wanted. Raised amongst Los Angeles county’s suburban sprawl, I constantly felt overwhelmed by my lack of satisfaction. A dream I often visited was of a relocation to San Francisco, where I could etch my own trail amongst crowds of the like-minded. This became an achieved reality, through a semi-whim in October 2008 and I haven’t looked back since. I want the work of Mike Ojeda to be a giant file in documenting the adventure of chasing my dreams and desires. It’s a continuously evolving, multi-mediumed beast, displaying my growth as a young adult and my life outside the closet.” MattScott Lovik writes: “Hoping to reincarnate as a light-boned bird of flight, Matthew is inspired by the boundless limit of human potential and moved by the rhythm of beating hearts. Life goals include understanding the common denominator in humanity and being content.” Jules Shendelman is an Oakland-based student, pre-everything trannyboy, atheist jew, pervert, writer, photographer, and budding queer theorist. He is interested in marginalization, deviance, liminality, and both literal and figurative queer spaces. Jules is currently majoring in Queer Studies at Mills College and hopes avoid the world outside of academia for as long as possible. Najva Sol is Brooklyn & San Francisco based artist of all trades. Among her inspirations are glitter, adventure, scandal, and smut. Some of her secret powers include catching your unexpected moments on film, writing poetry, getting a roomful of people dancing, and charming the pants off of all within range. She has studied writing and photography at the New School – while gogo dancing and performing burlesque in her free time. She has recently started dipping her toes in various forms of printmaking. For fun, she co-runs an art collective called “The Lowbrow Society for the Arts” which hosts carefully curated down + dirty art parties, free swaps, and subway parades. Her photography can be found najvasol.carbonmade.com and she keeps a randomly-updated najyisatrip.blogspot.com. Morgan Weinert is a young queer and genderqueer artist from San Francisco. Morgan works with photography, mixed media and ceramics to create art that explores their experiences as a trans, faggot identified, queer, fat, feminst, social justice oriented, kinky person. Morgan has most recently shown work at Femina Potens, Worth Ryder, and the Berkeley Canterbury House, and has a show going up at Eros: The Center for Safe Sex from April through June. You can view Morgan’s photography online at www.nakedeyephotography.com. This event received a Creating Queer Community Commission from Queer Cultural Center funded through the San Francisco Foundation. |
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