'Pride Publics: Words and Actions' exhibit features LGBTQ artists, activists

“Pride Publics: Words and Actions” showcases historical and contemporary LGBTQ changemakers on 28 large-scale black-and-white posters that are wheat pasted in West Hollywood along Robertson Boulevard, just south of Santa Monica Boulevard and The Abbey. These 4-feet-by-5-feet posters feature dynamic and engaging portraits of contemporary LGBTQ artists, writers, and community organizers, many of them familiar with audiences in the Los Angeles area, including Patrisse Cullors, Durk Dehner, and Joey Terrill. Photo: ONE Archives Foundation

These 4-feet-by-5-feet posters feature dynamic and engaging portraits of contemporary LGBTQ artists, writers, and community organizers, many of them familiar with audiences in the Los Angeles area, including Patrisse Cullors, Durk Dehner, and Joey Terrill.

Each piece also includes two quotes: one from the artist, and the one from an LGBTQ trailblazer who inspires them.

The outdoor exhibit is located along Robertson Boulevard on the east side of the street, south of Santa Monica Boulevard and The Abbey. It will be on display through July 1.

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“LGBTQ+ liberation is a multi-generational story. Every civil right we possess is a result of ongoing struggle over decades of movement work,” says Umi Hsu, director of content strategy at ONE Archives Foundation, which organized the installation. “This exhibition honors those whose shoulders we stand on, and illustrates a lineage seen through the lens of today’s changemakers, who continue the legacy of queer and trans liberation through cultural production and activism.”

“Pride Publics: Words and Actions” is curated by Rubén Esparza, a multidisciplinary artist and activist.

In a statement, Esparza said the exhibition wants to “break up the urban visual noise field with an homage to protest culture and street art.”

Esparza’s design inspiration comes from queer lineages of activist-artists, including Gran Fury member Robert Vásquez Pacheco’s method of propaganda making.