​​​Mariette Pathy Allen And Culture Lab LIC Announce A Pair Of Pride Exhibitions, June 1- July 30

Mariette Pathy Allen has been photographing the transgender community for almost 50 years. Through her artistic practice, she has been a pioneering force in gender consciousness, contributing to numerous cultural and academic publications about gender variance and lecturing worldwide.

From June 1 to July 30 (opening on the evening of June 3 from 6-9pm), Culture Lab LIC will celebrate Mariette's work with the exhibition Breaking Boundaries: 50 Years of Images alongside another exhibition with work by other artists inspired by, or in the spirit of, Mariette's work titled Breaking More Boundaries. The latter will feature invited artists Zackary Drucker and Jess T. Dugan.

These exhibitions are part of Culture Lab LIC's celebration of Pride Month and are curated by Orestes Gonzalez and Jesse Egner. There is currently an open call for submissions to Breaking More Boundaries. Interested artists should submit art that displays the transformative values and perceptions of inclusiveness that are embodied in Mariette's work. Mediums accepted: photography, painting, sculpture, mixed media. No video or film work. Applications are open now through April 15. Submission page here. Selected artists will be announced on April 19. Jurors: Mariette Pathy Allen, Orestes Gonzalez, Jesse Egner. Culture Lab LIC is located at 5-25 46th Avenue, LIC, NY 11101. Phone: (347) 848 0030.

Most of the photographs featured in Breaking Boundaries: 50 Years of Images were made in the US. Also included within the exhibit is a section on transgender women in Cuba and Spirit Mediums (who may be women, gay men, transgender, or non-binary) in Burma and Thailand.

Books by Mariette Pathy Allen and several of the other artists will be available for purchase at the opening and throughout the exhibition.

Mariette Pathy Allen: "The importance of this exhibition in this retrograde, evil political climate, can't be exaggerated. We hope that by presenting transgender and non-binary people as relatable, caring, and creative, we can help to dispel the misinformation and fear of gender and sexual non-conforming people. I am very grateful to the Culture Lab LIC's Plaxall Gallery for giving me the opportunity to have this retrospective of some of my work on gender variance.

At the suggestion of Culture Lab LIC, Orestes Gonzalez, Jesse Egner, and I embarked on creating an Open Call to find other artists doing work that relates in some way to my long-term travels with gender-expansive people. I began to form this exhibition by inviting two young and highly-accomplished artists, Zackary Drucker and Jess T. Dugan, whose portraiture of strong, courageous people reminded me of some of the heroic people I photographed over the years who led the way to greater freedom of expression. I feel these artists' love for the people they photograph is similar to mine. Orestes, Jesse, and I are waiting excitedly to see what treasures the open call brings!"

More about Mariette Pathy Allen:
Mariette Pathy Allen is a photographer of transgender, genderfluid, and gender variant communities, as well as other continuous series such as Birth and Families, Flowers and Fantasy, and Scapes. Allen's earliest portfolios contain images taken in New Jersey and Philadelphia, People with art, and modern dance. In 1978, on the last day of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Allen met Vicky West, a trans woman she befriended and through whom she was first invited to Fantasia Fair, a transgender conference where she would serve as official photographer. She traveled across the US to many other transgender conferences, participated in political activism, and worked for the Transgender Tapestry magazine. She continues to pursue the work of photographing, interviewing, and advocating on behalf of gender-nonconforming people.

Allen is the author of four books that have brought visibility to transgender communities across the world including Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them (1989), The Gender Frontier (2004), TransCuba (2014), and Transcendents: Spirit Mediums in Burma and Thailand (2017). She has made dozens of slide presentations to a variety of groups, participated in radio and television programs, and been a consultant and still photographer for films. Allen's work is included in numerous collections, both public and private, and has been exhibited internationally. Her work is being archived by Duke University's Rare Book and Manuscripts Library and the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's Studies. Allen is based in New York City and is represented by CLAMP.

Jess T. Dugan (American, b. 1986) is an artist whose work explores issues of identity through photography, video, and writing. Dugan's work has been widely exhibited and is in the permanent collections of over 50 museums throughout the United States. Dugan's monographs include Look at me like you love me (MACK, 2022), To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults (Kehrer Verlag, 2018) and Every Breath We Drew (Daylight Books, 2015).

Zackary Drucker is an independent artist, filmmaker, and cultural producer. She has performed and exhibited her work internationally in museums, galleries, and film festivals including The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Whitney Biennial 2014, MoMa PS1, Hammer Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, MCA San Diego, and SF MoMA, among others. Drucker is an Emmy nominated producer for the docuseries This Is Me, and was a producer on the Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning Amazon show Transparent. The Lady and The Dale, her directorial debut for television, premiered on HBO in 2021. Her follow-up project with HBO, The Stroll, won a Special Jury Award: Clarity of Vision, at Sundance 2023. Her standalone directorial feature QUEENMAKER will be released on Hulu in May.

Culture Lab LIC is a 501(c)(3) formed to be the arts and culture umbrella for Western Queens. We present local, national, and international art of all genres, while supporting New York artists and other nonprofits by providing space, resources and a sense of community. Operating out of a 12,000 square foot converted warehouse, Culture Lab LIC hosts two fine art galleries, an 80 seat theater, classroom space, an 18,000 square foot outdoor venue, and a robust residency program. Culture Lab LIC is dedicated to upholding, equity, diversity and inclusion across all our platforms.

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