Are you a Black Queer artist, painter, illustrator, comic book artist, zine maker, or photographer that would like to have your work featured and celebrated in the heart of the Castro?

San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Strut will be exhibiting the work of Black Queer Artists in 2023, and we are looking for queer Black visual artists to submit to have their art exhibited on our gallery wall for a month. Artists will be selected by local artists, Ajuan Mance and Serge Gay Jr., who will be hosting and curating the events that will be supporting the program.

We’re calling for entries from Black Queer artists who are excited about our mission of queer sexual health and wellness and want to share their work with our communities. Every show gets a launch party and is exhibited in our gallery for a month. Submit your work using our form below. Submission deadline is May 1, 2023.

We encourage submissions from Black artists from all over the Queer spectrum, (lesbian, trans, nonbinary, gay, pansexual, etc). Black artists who have shown their work before in our galleries are welcome to submit again.

WORDS FROM THE CURATORS:

AJUAN MANCE:

We seek art that reflects the rich diversity of Black queer experience and identity, and we encourage work that portrays the intersections that shape and define queer lives of African descent. While we welcome work that celebrates Black queerness and its people, we understand and acknowledge that Black art as complex as the community out of which it is produced; and some visual stories feel less like celebration and more like inquiry, reflection, or even struggle. Black queer representation can never be constrained by narrow concepts like “positive images” or “good role models,” though both have a role in the broad net of creative expression. We believe that more queer voices from more perspectives means that some art works will uplift and inspire, but some may, by necessity, force us to look back on experiences, ideas, events, or even individuals we would rather forget. There is beauty in Black queer joy, but also in the ways that we can look unflinchingly at portrayals of those moments in which survival is the greatest victory we can muster. Not all Black queer art will make its way into every queer gallery space, residency, or event series; but all Black artists and the lives we are living matter deeply. We thank you for your work, and we hope you will apply for this exhibition series. – Ajuan Mance

SERGE GAY JR.:

Storytelling is very important to me as a visual artist, even more important as a black queer voice, to mark my own experience. We need fair and yearly opportunities to display our Black Queer art, not as tokenized individuals in a white space or because it’s a trend, we need bigger commitments to the vital Black Artistic voice. We hope this art program at Strut helps to create that platform within the queer arts in San Francisco. Having representation and inclusion for unheard black queer artist is needed, often, black queer artist gets rejected from showing or displaying because someone may not understand or can’t relate to our stories, then automatically label it as unrelatable or not “Good” art. We as a city have a long way to go, to being that example of change. It’s crucial for our diverse queer storytellers to uphold and preserve that narrative before it gets washed out. Visual art creates connection, visual art brings viewpoints together, lets amplify the Black Queer artistic experience together. Black queer arts belong in San Francisco. I’m so honored and glad Strut is putting this together. We need to open doors for black queer artist to tell their own stories and given the opportunity to showcase our own and unique perspective. We want to focus on Black art before and after “Black History Month” is over. – Serge Gay Jr.

Please make sure to fill out every part of the form. Forms with missing sections will be disqualified.

Deadline is May 1, 2023.

If you are selected to take part, you must be present at your Art Opening, Art Openings will be the second Saturday of the month.

HERE’S HOW TO APPLY

We encourage submissions from all types of artists. Those who have shown their work previously are welcome to apply.

Wall Art Only: art must be able to hang on our gallery wall. Items which require any kind of shelf or pedestal will not be accepted for this show. Work should be completed and ready to hang by the time of submission, no sketches nor drafts of future work will be reviewed for this show.

Artists selected to display their work will be notified by the end of May 2023. No calls, please.