Joel Sanders Architect

JSA created the design for “Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New York”, a groundbreaking exhibition dedicated to the significant contribution made by three generations of New York City queer artistic networks from 1910 to 1993 that had a lasting effect on mainstream culture. The exhibition is on view at The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) October 7, 2016 – February 26, 2017. The exhibition is shown in two galleries located on two floors of the museum and gives spatial expression to the show’s two main themes: the people and places that allowed queer artistic life to flourish in NYC.

On both floors of the exhibition, the perimeter gallery walls are painted a deep purple, the color traditionally associated with queer culture. They form the backdrop for a series of “Portraits,” mixed-media groupings of paintings, drawings, photographs that represent the contribution of influential queer “networkers,” artists representing different disciplines who galvanized the NYC art world. A narrow shelf supports labels, text and wall-mounted cases that display related ephemera. In both gallery’s, while the perimeter walls focus on people, the center is organized by place. Freestanding walls occupying the center of both galleries display large-scale maps that allow viewers to trace the evolution of changing queer neighborhoods and venues in both mainstream and sub-cultural spaces. Cantilevered cases exhibit print media that publicized events hosted by the LBGT community.