NEW YORK, June 13 ― The Mexican multimedia artist was commissioned by the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York, which is working in collaboration with Deutsche Bank for the march.
As ARTnews reports, the museum will present large-scale reproductions of Román's Queer Icons series for its participation in the annual NYC Pride March.
This ongoing project, which started in 2011, features around 50 portraits of LGBTQ people of colour depicted as religious icons.
The subjects, whose faces are framed with a halo, are surrounded with handwritten texts about their identities.
Among them are artists Lola Flash, Kia LaBeija, Fatima Jamal, as well as writer Alan Pelaez Lopez, performing poet Fei Hernandez and drag queen Panda Dulce.
“It's about reclaiming history. This project shifts the narrative back to the communities that have been made invisible by the mainstream society. These are our modern-day saints-people who are putting their lives on the line for our community,” said Román to ARTnews.
For the march on June 30, volunteers will carry some 100 reproductions of the portraits that will be attached to 10-foot poles.
These past few years, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art has not participated in the NYC Pride March ― as the institution designates Pride Sunday a holiday.
The museum is also holding the exhibition Art after Stonewall, 1969-1989, which runs through July 21, in collaboration with the Columbus Museum of Art.
The presentation, which is timed with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, examines the impact of the LGBTQ liberation movement on the art world.
It focuses on the work of openly LGBTQ artists such as David Hockney, Andy Warhol and Vaginal Davis.
Additional information the 2019 NYC Pride March are available here. ― AFP-Relaxnews
