Drawing its title from the 1980 text Powers of Horror, in which theorist Julia Kristeva examines the physical and psychic boundaries between oneself and the world, Not Me, Not That, Not Nothing Either offers a lens into the liminal spaces of queer subjectivities. The works in the exhibition position queerness as neither subject nor object, but rather as a form of relation that is at once of primary importance and incidental to individuation.

Historically associated with modernist movements, strategies of bodily fragmentation are reclaimed by contemporary queer artists—through painting, drawing, sculpture, assemblage, and time-based media—as a method of deconstruction and also as an additive process. Rejecting societal notions of fixedness, these works render selfhood as malleable, ever-changing, tactile, and connected. Moments of physical and emotional rupture become spaces of transformation, reclamation, and protest. Bodily absences and permeabilities, explored through holes, voids, and spaces of unfinish, suggest the potential for infinite states of becoming. Subjects navigate nonlinear narratives, move through dimensions, and explore imagined spaces. Figures contort and mutate, highlighting the imprecise boundaries between subject and object, self and other. As they forge a queer aesthetic, the artists in this show propose a world in which the body-in-pieces is in fact the body-as-whole.

Participating artists: Math Bass, Diedrick Brackens, A.K. Burns, Jibz Cameron, Theresa Chromati, KC Crow Maddux, Troy Michie, Christina Quarles, Devan Shimoyama, Ceaphas Stubbs, and Jade Yumang.

Not Me, Not That, Not Nothing Either is curated by Rachel Beaudoin and Nirvana Santos-Kuilan

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HEALTH, SAFETY, ACCESSIBILITY

In order to continue adhering to safety protocols and ensure the protection of our staff and other patrons, we require that all visitors to the museum wear a KN95, KF94, or comparable mask the entire time they are inside the museum. Masks are always available to those who need them at our front desk.

Proof of vaccination is required.

Leslie-Lohman Museum strives to provide a welcoming environment to all visitors. External steps lead to our entrance doors: a wheelchair lift is available. All galleries are wheelchair-accessible, and a single-occupancy accessible restroom is located behind the visitor services desk: all restrooms are gender-neutral. Large print didactics are available. To request access accommodations please contact Ky Wyman at ky@leslielohman.org at least three days in advance of your planned visit.

Not Me, Not That, Not Nothing Either is generously supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council. Additional support is provided by the Leslie-Lohman Museum’s Global Ambassadors program.

[Image: Christina Quarles, Tig Ol’ Bitties, 2020. Ink on paper, 33 x 48.3 cm / 13 x 19 inches © Christina Quarles. Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Pilar Corrias, London]