So here goes.
The busiest artist prize goes to the queen of “Lesbian Art in America,” Harmony Hammond, who had several exhibitions this past year, including ones at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, and the Site Santa Fe. Hammond is also a featured artist in the exhibition, “Personal and Political: The Women’s Art Movement, 1969-1975,” currently on view at the Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY (closes on October 20, 2002). Other dykes included in this amazing exhibition are Louise Fishman, Kate Millett, Michelle Stuart and Barbara Hammer.
Other news: Lili Lakich exhibited her “Heads” (aluminum, neon, found objects) this past summer at the Malibu Gallery in Malibu, California; Laurie Toby Edison’s photographs of nude men were featured at the Queer Cultural Center in San Francisco; and Joyce Culver’s photographic portrait work is currently appearing in the inaugural issue of a new lesbian magazine, Velvet Park [See their website at http://velvetparkmagazine.com]. Culver will also be having a one-person exhibition (January-April 2003) at the Albuquerque Museum in New Mexico.
“Hot Pink,” a juried exhibition of lesbian work sponsored by San Francisco’s Lesbians in the Visual Arts, and organized by Dorian Katz and Rebecca McBride, was a hugely attended show this past August at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society of Northern California [for more information, see http://www.lesbianarts.org].
Another exciting development: the papers of openly lesbian photographer Laura Aguilar (1959?) have been collected by Stanford University. They will soon be accessible via the web.
On the publishing front: Tee Corinne published Intimacies (San Francisco: Last Gasp, 2002), which gathers a quarter-of-a-century’s worth of her sensual, solarized imagery. The book was a 2002 Lambda Literary Award finalist. Personally, I am hard at work on my book manuscript which explores lesbian imagery (both visual and literary) in 19th-century France. Stay tuned for a publication date.
And, lastly, nepotistically, I must plug, um, my girlfriend’s new performance piece. Come see Carmelita Tropicana and Marga Gomez in their intellectually raunchy, lesbian thriller called “Single Wet Female” at Performance Space 122, New York City, October 3-20. Directed by David Schweizer and with a guest appearance by Murray Hill (drag king extraordinaire), SWF is too moist to miss. For information and tickets, visit: www.ps122.org. There will also be a Latinathon Lounge Party, a $12 entrance-fee benefit with star-studded performances by the dueling divas themselves among others, on Sunday, September 22nd, at 9:45 pm at Marion’s (on the Bowery & East 4th St.), New York City.
Okay, that’s it for now. Please send ideas for the next edition of this column to me with the subject heading "DYKE NOTES". And, in the interim, keep up the good work!