Robert Sherer is known around the world for his provocative artwork, including a series called “Blood Works” that incorporated HIV-positive and HIV-negative blood into botanical illustrations.
Exhibits of his male nude drawings have been censored four times, but in 2007 he won the Lorenzo de Medici medal for his homoerotic wood-burnings. He is an art professor at Kennesaw State University and is working to endow a scholarship for out LGBT students.
Sherer and his partner, William Cash, are now featured in the book “100 Artists of the Male Figure” by E. Gibbons. Cash and Sherer appear at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse on April 21 to sign copies of the book.
Artist Robert Sherer brings provocative work to Outwrite tonight
High Museum offers extended hours for last chance to see masterpieces by Salvador Dali
Gallery Director Yu-Kai Lin first opened the contemporary Kai Lin Art in January 2009 to showcase artistic collections in the heart of Midtown Atlanta.
“I opened Kai Lin Art because I knew so many local, talented emerging and established artists who needed a platform to exhibit their works of art,” says Lin, who is gay. “The pieces offered in our gallery range from paintings to photography, sculptures to one of a kind hand-crafted art —all at affordable prices.”
A graduate of Atlanta’s Emory University, Lin gained experience at Lowe Gallery and Mason Murer Fine Art before opening his own gallery.
Derived from the inspirational mind of founder Will Pollock, ARTvision launched in 2006 in honor of his late aunt, Betsy Weedon. A philanthropic leader in San Francisco’s Bay Area for more than 40 years, Wheedon lost her fight with cancer in April 2006.
“I started ARTvision at a particularly challenging point in my life. I wanted to do something to give back after seeing great showings of generosity to me (gifts of wine, mostly) at my annual New Year’s Eve party,” Pollock says. “I wanted to channel that positive energy into something bigger and better.”
ARTvision — “Artists Reaching Through” — is a yearly fundraiser which consists of an online art show lasting the duration of December with a New Year’s Eve grand finale hosted by the founder.
Art Vision charity continues through the end of the year
Jon Arge, or Arge, has made an impact on Atlanta’s art movement for nearly 20 years, from creating flyers for the once popular parties he promoted at the now defunct Metro to unique, one-of-a-kind pieces that hang from the walls of galleries and the homes of close friends and other art lovers.
“When [my pieces] moved from the bathroom to the kitchen to over the mantle, I knew I had made my mark,” he jokes while sitting inside his bedroom, which also serves as his studio.
Arge, 42, whose real name is Randall Jonathan Baker, truly struggled to find his place in the art world. After receiving a scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design (in Savannah), he learned the professors there didn’t want him to really draw in his style anymore. A battle of wits ensued as Arge refused to give up his own method and he was eventually asked to leave.
The second annual arts festival brings painters, potters, sculptors and more to Chastain Park
Last April, Georgia Voice and the John Q Collective collaborated on “Memory Flash,” an interactive, multimedia art walk through several of Atlanta's gay history landmarks.
I photographed the event and several hundred shots later, my work was finished. I was satisfied with my contribution, but nothing could have brought it all together quite like experiencing the living catalogue the event produced, which is now on display at Atlanta's Museum of Contemporary Art.
You'll have to read more about it here and here, but the scope of the project reminded me of the power of history in our movement.
As a gay, black, HIV-positive man, Michael Morgan finds solace in his art.
From his painting “In the Garden” that depicts the shame of being gay and resorting to finding sex in Piedmont Park, to his “Jack in the Box” series with dolls caged behind chicken wire to symbolize struggles with drugs, sexuality and poverty, Morgan wants the African-American community to address taboo topics and not hide from them.
“The last eight years I started focusing my work on my environment, things that have affected me for so long. I did a lot of artwork on social commentary, civil rights and the family,” he says.