Events

Opening Reception and book launch of
The Beauty of All Men
Tuesday, May 17, 6:00 - 8:00 PM

Statement:

Right from the start I took my pleasure in looking, seeing everything that was real. I welcome your eyes to my online profile: STELLARNYC

I am a photograph freak. I have a vision: of light and line and inner gesture of flesh and form, of contemporary man daring to see and be seen. I walk with this vision. I see the individual design. I came from the outside. I seek to find out why? I am. All men are more than they are ever allowed to be.

For the past twentyfive years I have been photographing, and recording, with love, the other side. My work is a political and anthropological act. I see men here in my NYC society as they live, and die, and live. It is a society of physical, naked men, a whole unacknowledged counter world of men: straight, bi, and gay, usually never seen; rarely seen but in secret.

They take off their clothes. They let themselves be recorded. I see them say, "I am also this... consciously, physically allowing myself to merge with the universal visual history of all men.

Stop, and know I am here.

Look in my eyes. Look at my golden eyes, before I go.
"These are portraits of what has traditionally been hidden, ignored, visually banned about men. It was bad to look directly. It was dangerous. There exists a censor fearing visions of a world beyond the given line.

Portraits are traditionally not supposed to be sexually charged. Such images are seldom seen as beautiful. This disassociation between sexuality and beauty creates a language, the lexicon of what we've come to call pornography; a vision fraught with secrecy, and with shame.

All men share their nakedness with each other, yet are never allowed to see each other naked. The lingering eye... is mine. So what's the connection between the outside and the inside?
I came in looking for myself this is what I see. This is what I say: "Sit down. Talk. Look at your eyes, face, head, ears, hands. Take off your shoes, show me your feet. Look at me... seeing you as light.

We.

Take off your clothes, and be beautiful and naked, cool and hot here, same as me, now. "I see the full picture, not the covered up one. The true picture, what is. I see something of myself in all these people. I record them, acknowledging their existence, emotion, and humanity. And in the process, record my own.
I used to think I was alone in my vision, of humanity. The internet has done away with isolation. We are visible, truthful, vulnerable, and strong.

My consciousness...
My love...
My body...
Merged with everyman.

Stanley Stellar, NYC, 2000

The Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation, established in 1990, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the awareness and appreciation of GLBTQ art that may not be exhibited due to prejudice and ignorance. Since its inception the Foundation’s gallery has presented over 200 exhibitions including hundreds of gay and lesbian artists whose work represents the fundamental view that “gay art” does exist and that the “gay/lesbian” artist has contributed immeasurably to our visual culture from prehistoric to ancient Greece to the contemporary era.

The Foundation has a considerable permanent collection of art, including, Andy Warhol, Duncan Grant, Delmas Howe, Jean Cocteau, Deni Ponty, Sonia Melara, Cassandra, Marsden Hartley, Horst, Bastille, Blade, Tom of Finland, Michael Kirwan, and many more.

Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12 - 6 PM
Closed on major holidays and between shows.
26 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013 · Map · 212.431.2609
Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation Website