Not Straight Not White

Curated by David Hanlon

Artists: Patrick Arias, Garrett Allen, Jinyong Choi

October 2019

We find ourselves in an exciting time where our society allows us to express individuality with complete freedom. Not Straight Not White is an exhibition that presents new definitions of queerness in an age of open expression within cosmopolitan regions of Western democracies, despite the current trend toward autocratic regimes. With parts of the world in the face of resistance, artists reject societal pressure to silence individuality and celebrate their free identity. In this way, they deconstruct and redefine queerness to find confidence. 
Not Straight Not White offers a small yet vibrant slice of what expression without oppression looks like. Performance artist Garrett Allen investigates the emergence of queer identity from the intersections and collisions of blackness and gender. Their goal is to discover what complete belonging and self-affirming love might feel like in a world that transcends what the artist refers to as “segmentation.” Patrick Arias presents us with manipulated portraits that gives us a visual reference to what it’s like to be young and queer in their 2019. These images exist to embrace a community and to shine a light on as many queer stories as possible. Sculptor Jinyong Choi creates work focusing on the future of identity. He shows us what that might look like when all restrictions on expression no longer exist on a global level. His mission is to create abstractions and open forms that symbolize the openness of the future of identity. Not Straight Not White includes a diversity in forms of expression, just as our language of queer understandings has become more diverse than ever before.