Lansing Art Gallery's LGBTQ art exhibit gives space for 'radical self-acceptance'

LANSING — A story of transitioning and interacting with a hobby, a visualization of queer heartbreak, Afrofuturism and the inner workings of one's mind are on display at a local gallery celebrating LGBTQ Michiganders ahead of Pride.

The Lansing Art Gallery opened a section of its space for the LGBTQ+ Artist in Michigan exhibit. It runs until June 29 and is a partnership with Lansing-based LGBTQ social networking organization Suits and the City.

"When we decided that we wanted to do an exhibit celebrating the voices of the LGBTQ-plus community, we decided to partner with Suits and the City because we wanted to make sure that we had sort of these guiding voices that were helping us to just be sensitive and making sure that we every we approached it in the right way," said Katrina Daniels, exhibitions and gallery sales director.

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A panel of LGBTQ judges screened 70 submitted works and selected 28 that are featured in the gallery, she added.

The gallery, located on the first floor of the Knapp's Centre, is free to attend and is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays, according to the website. An additional pop-up gallery will be on display at Lansing Pride in Old Town, which is scheduled for June 17.

Some of the work featured is for sale, and Daniels said if the artist isn't a member of the art gallery, the artist gets 50% of the commission. If they are a member, they get 55% of the commission on each sale.

Paul VerBurg's oil painting on canvas, 'SUMMIT,' is a reflection of his creative processes, he said. He's a seasoned artist, having been in the industry since 1975. This exhibit allowed him to connect with other artists and learn their approaches to making artwork.

"I thought the quality of work was there too," the Okemos resident said. "I talked to a few artists and the one woman next to me did a sculpture of a bird taking a selfie and we were commenting about the textures about them being similar."

VerBurg said the exhibit shows that there are other aspects of being gay. He said he's a painter who just happens to be gay and the works within the gallery show that LGBTQ art isn't sexual or motivated by sexuality.

Other artists like LaRone Johnson saw the exhibit as an opportunity to further express themselves as a part of the LGBTQ community. Johnson said that as a queer Black person, the exhibit helped him tell the story of heartbreak in his painting called 'Bitter Ends.' He described it as him opening a page in his diary and coming to terms with a breakup and the necessity to either move past it, or let it consume him.

This was also his first exhibit. By day, he works as a gallery guide at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.

"I want people to get that the queer community isn't a monolith and we have our own separate experiences and we all have our own thing in our lives," he said. "We're able to come together as a community to bring together something beautiful."

Daniels hoped to continue doing more LGBTQ exhibits. This is the first in the gallery's 58-year history. The gallery is partnering with the Salus Center, a gathering place and information hub for Lansing's LGBTQIA+ community, on June 29 to bring new artists to the exhibit's last day to learn how to be in an art show.

"They asked us if we could produce a workshop like a sort of one-on-one for artists who want to begin exhibiting with galleries and or working with like festivals and events," Daniels said.

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Two transgender and nonbinary artists in the exhibit called it a moment of "radical self-acceptance." Liv Furman and Lorelei d'Andriole both used their media to express how they see themselves.

"It's great to be in a collection with artists who are intentional about spaces about ourselves," said Furman, who also works for the Quilt Index at MSU. "For queer people, it's an intentional action for how we're identified in the world."

They created a moon crater out of paper from a journal they referred to during their dissertation. The work also has two moldings of their face on each crater, placed at foot level to intentionally have viewers look into "spaces where white capitalism doesn't exist."

Furman called it "Afrofuturism Imaginings."

When they enter the gallery, most people would be awestruck by d'Andriole's "The Body is an Instrument and My Body is a Brick," Daniels said. She said it's one of the most compelling pieces in the gallery especially when d'Andriole performed on it on opening night.

d'Andriole has played the drums since she was a teen and said the instrument is portrayed as masculine and requires muscle memory to master. She had to relearn that after she transitioned and her relationship with the instrument did as well. A conversation with a Grammy award-winning trans male violinist made her question how a trans woman plays drums.

She has kept all her needles from her estrogen injections due to sentimental value and wants to eventually cover the barrel in her needles. No one is allowed to touch the installation and she knew it was dangerous, but the piece is still important for the gallery.

"I've gotten some feedback from people telling me that the artist statement allowed them to empathize with a trans experience they probably wouldn't have ever thought of," d'Andriole said.

She hoped, however, more people recognize being LGBTQ matters and the expression of one's identity is relevant everywhere. She wanted viewers to know that she loves being trans, queer and a lesbian, and wants it to be visible in her works.

"I hope people celebrate themselves and see themselves in the work. Bodies are cool. I hope everyone can express themselves as fully as they want," d'Andriole said.

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Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at 517-267-1344 or knurse@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @KrystalRNurse.