William Way LGBTQ Community Center Group Art Show: Gina Giles, Thom Duffy, Lance Pawling
“Thom Duffy, Gina Giles, and Lance Pawling are the winners of the 2013 William Way LGBT Community Center Juried Art Competition and their exciting and diverse bodies of work will be on display this September and October in the gallery.
Thom Duffy will display beautifully created watercolor still lifes on paper featuring an autumn theme. Gina Giles has exhibited in The Plastic Club, Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks, Hicks Art Center Gallery, and more and will display photographic works. Pawling is a performance and installation artist known for his work with the improvisational theater group Dumpsta Players. Lance Pawling’s found-object sculptures ‘provide the viewer with a magnetic vounce through wonder. Evocative, often disturbing and equally alluring, his work redefines our ideas of refuse.’ The show will be on view in the gallery from through October 31, 2014.
The group art show at William Way LGBTQ Community Center presents three of Philadelphia’s most interesting and influential artists that were chosen from the 2013 Juried Community Art Show. I believe these artists are influential because they each are living their own authentic artistic self-actualized selves and influencing Philadelphia’s artistic culture.
Gina Giles is documenting the drag scene in Philadelphia, a performance art with a long Philadelphia history, through candid and backstage photographs. Thom Duffy is a fine painter who created a whole new body of work, beautiful Autumnal watercolors in a variety of sizes. Thom also operates a successful business, Thom Duffy Massage Therapy LLC, ‘offering a full array of therapeutic massage services for men and women to achieve specific targeted goals and physical well-being’. His job is to make you feel better. Lance Pawling, who’s day job is at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, is influential because of his fearless performances in burlesque shows as well as his visual art skills. I caught the latest performance of The Weird Beard Review, an all male burlesque review, at L’Tage and watched the man with the Dali moustache transform from art nerd to bearded lady sex bomb before my eyes.
October is Gay History Month and a lot of gay history is being made around the world. ‘LGBT History Month is a month-long annual observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. It is observed during October in the United States, to include National Coming Out Day on October 11.[1] In the United Kingdom, it is observed during February, to coincide with a major celebration of the 2005 abolition of Section 28.’ (Wikipedia).
The group art show at William Way LGBTQ Community Center is part of gay history now and I believe that the main takeaway is that ‘gay art’ is art just like LGBTQ people are people. Living an authentic life with a freedom of spirit and nature just feels right and brings happiness to our lives.
Read my interviews with each of these artists on DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog.
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