PHD Gallery hosts Tom Bianchi/David Lancaster

Please join us
Saturday, June 27, 2009
7-10 p.m.
(after Pridefest)
for the opening reception of

TOM BIANCHI:
MEMORIES OF FIRE ISLAND
Limited Edition Archival Prints from SX-70 Polaroids


From Paul Friswold of the Riverfront Times
Candid Camera - by Paul Friswold

"Tom Bianchi was not a professional artist when he began making photographs with a Polaroid SX 70 in 1976 — he was a young lawyer living a closeted life in New York and exulting in what he called an "invisible life in the gay paradise of Fire Island" on the weekends. Bianchi photographed fellow revelers, carefully keeping their faces out of frame. Being outed was career suicide in the real world, but those concerns were far away on Fire Island; there the homosexual population of the East Coast lived out fantasies of being who they really were. Skinny-dipping was accepted, nude sunbathing was common, but so were smaller achievements that perhaps mattered more: On Fire Island a same-sex couple could hold hands while strolling the beach. Bianchi photographed everything, compiling a historic record of a pivotal time and place in the gay revolution, and in doing so created art that celebrates the male physique with an eye as keenly appreciative as any classical sculptor.

"Tom Bianchi: Memories of Fire Island, a selection of 24 limited-edition archival prints from his collection of 9,000 images, opens with a free public reception from 7-10 p.m. Saturday, June 27, at the phd gallery (2300 Cherokee Street; 314-664-6644 or www.phdstl.com). Bianchi will attend the opening reception, and Memories of Fire Island remains up through Saturday, August 15. The gallery is open Thursday through Sunday."


.....In the Portfolio Gallery.....

DAVID LANCASTER
PLEASE GOD, MAKE ME NOT QUEER.
Oil on studded aluminum paintings and sculpture


DAVID LANCASTER:
"Please God, Make Me Not Queer"

"Give me chastity ... but not yet." St. Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo and one of the major figures of early Christianity, uttered this famous prayer in his struggle to gain mastery over his earthly desires. In the spirit of brazen honesty with which Augustine addressed his deity, David Lancaster proposes a collection of modern prayers, painted in oil on aluminum, designed to explore and question the nature of communication with the divine. Sad, bold, frank and funny, the prayers challenge our collective notions of supplication and gratitude -- what we should ask of an omnipotent God and for what we should give thanks -- and the very idea that prayer is a catalyst for divine action.

Ten of Lancaster's studded aluminum paintings and sculpture will be on view in PHD's Portfolio Gallery. The text of each prayer, rendered without vowels or word breaks (in the manner of early biblical manuscripts), surrounds the nude supplicant, painted in oil on aluminum, the whole nailed to a plywood substrate with brass escutcheon pins, reminiscent of Christian icon paintings and stained glass windows.

PHD Gallery
2300 Cherokee Street
St. Louis, MO 63118
(314) 664-6644
www.phdstl.com