featured artists

James Ardeña is a self-taught artist often explores notions of the state of Filipino America, the effects of colonization, and the emotional constructs which we imprison ourselves. His work explores the subject of the gaze of the camera and also the one that looks back, both of the subject and his own while taking into account the influence of cultural/racial legacies that shape each gaze.

Vaquero Azul is a P’urepecha and Boriken-Taíno, Two-Spirit illustrator and sewist. Their work focuses on Trans Mexican Euforia and Mesoamerican joy. He believes in a world where Trans, Two-Spirit & Dos Espíritus people are celebrated, loved, and left feeling proud of who they are as expressed in their body of art.

Natasha Crouch (She/They) is a Queer artist from all over the west coast. They are also a Nurse, weirdo, and swamp witch.

Mandy Greear is a local artist and art educator. She believes in the current state of the world we need more pockets of joy. Mandy likes to think of herself as a “Joy Farmer” by sharing her whimsical robot Arty.

Nell Kerr is a self taught, Seattle born-and-raised artist. He works primarily in acrylic self portraiture, mythological fantasies, and deep feelings.

Audrey Lewis is a Lesbian Seattle-based creative and visual artist whose work explores intimacy, vulnerability, and the relationship between queer bodies and environment. Her cyanotype series Intimate Exposures uses sunlight to record personal objects and moments, transforming private experiences into luminous blue images.

Eden Randall is a queer interdisciplinary artist who uses themes of gender and mental health to explore the physicality of change. They use recycled materials such as found objects, plastic bags, and everyday waste for the dual purpose of reducing my carbon footprint and utilizing the memories objects hold while still giving them a new meaning.

about the show

When I was in college, George W. Bush was re-elected as president of the US and a Queer Elder in Seattle tried to console us by recalling that during the height of the AIDS Crisis “We buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night.” You might imagine that this wasn't as comforting as we all wanted at the time (or even what we want now), but it has held true that during times of crisis queer folks never have a funeral without a party, and never have a party without being prepared to riot. “Parties, Funerals, & Riots” seeks to form a triple-goddess of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community: three facets of the same core belief that we deserve to exist, deserve to love each other, and woe to those who oppose us.

One of the most impactful moments in this show for me is a conversation between pieces by Becky Brennan and Nell Kerr: splashes of bright red in one represents the kind of fatal grief we in the queer community face far too often; while stylized droplets of the same color in the other symbolize a minor side-effect of gender-affirming interpersonal care. Both sit together beneath the towering figures of Vaquero Azul’s piece honoring Indigenous Trancestors. The visual stories in this section of the show might as well be two divergent timelines in the life of a single trans person. In one timeline, there is room in society for queerness to blossom into the beautiful, vibrant, multifaceted community that created the works in this show, while the other timeline is a stark reminder of or who we lose if we stop fighting those who wish to eradicate queerness from society. I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried during installation after connecting these dots; knowing all-to-well that this is the exact reason why we all made this art and put it into this show.

For several of the artists in this show, myself included, our love for queer people and queerness in general is founded in our Indigenous cultures. These traditions are not only sacred to my Cherokee Community and the inter-tribal community of Urban Natives who call Seattle home, but to Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island and around the world. These traditions are a significant part of why Seattle is so supportive of LGBTQIA+ people from all cultures and backgrounds, not just Two-Spirit people.

There are many stories in this show, not only Indigenous ones. These stories are sexy, silly, devastating, and all built from love, (and a handful describe the consequences in store for those attempting to stop us from telling them). Artists are the vanguard of the fight preserve the dignity of all people, their right to basic necessities, freedom of movement, and of preserving a world worth passing down not merely to the next generation, but to the many generations that will come later. We know that we will not live to see the full impact of the work we do, and we press forward for exactly that reason.

As the Blue Goblin directly across from the entryway states: Art Is A Threat. Art made by human hands, minds, and decisions cannot be controlled by capital no matter how much generative AI pollutes the world; censorship cannot halt the Prime Mover of humanity. Not even those certain people with bad skin, worse hair and no morals who seek to declare us “terrorists” for making work they call “anti-American” can silence the riots in our hearts. Because art is not a physical threat, it is impossible to neutralize. Artists in this show base our practices on love for all of our Relatives (humans, animals, plants, waterways, and the Planet we all share), and love of art itself.

I hope you see things in this show that remind you how to access your deepest personal feelings. If a particular work moves you toward your wallet, please contact the artist who made it at the email address on the information tag (or through their Instagram accounts linked above) to arrange to bring the work into your private collection at the end of the exhibition. Thank you for supporting queer art and helping to ensure that Seattle is as gay as humanly possible (even if it’s a little embarrassing sometimes).

John Setzer
June 2026

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