As described by theorist José Esteban Muñoz, queerness insists on the potential for another world. It resists present negativity and embraces the future, dreaming “new and better pleasures, other ways of being in the world, and ultimately new worlds.” In this exhibition, fourteen LGBTQ+ identified artists imagine their own worlds of potential through the self-actualizing power of self-portraiture.

Representation of one’s self in visual culture is a validating aspect of human existence. Yet depictions of LGBTQ+ identities are rarely shaped by the voices and perspectives of LGBTQ+ people. Instead, such portrayals are too often influenced by assumptions and treated with exaggerated attention towards sexualization, bodies, and tropes. This result from adhering to a heteronormative and binary-centric culture minimizes the real complexity of individual experience.

Featuring a diverse array of artists, The Self, Realized challenges any singular definition of queerness. Rather, these self-representational works visualize the creators’ identities as multidimensional, multilayered, and unique. Self-portraiture has performed a multitude of purposes—from authorship and aggrandizement to revelation and reflection. Here, by working in varying degrees of figuration and abstraction, these artists queer the genre, each enacting an alternative space to the visible present where their authentic selves can be realized.

Featured Artists include Paper Buck, Jen Cooney, Brendon Hawkins, Corrine Jasmin, Summer Jade Leavitt, Adam Milner, Cupid Ojala, Mikael Owunna, Nikolai Peacock, Maybe Jairan Sadeghi, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Sam Thorp, Curtis Welteroth.