By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
GREENWICH VILLAGE — The LGBT Center's art exhibits typically focus on artwork with an explicit connection to political or social issues such as "Don't Ask Don't Tell" or sexual expression.
But the new "Living Live" show, now on display throughout the lobbies, stairwells and corridors of the Center at 208 W. 13th Street, is expanding the scope of art on display at the non-profit organization.
The sculptures, paintings, photographs and videos in the new show address the importance of living in the moment, which organizers describe as living a life that's active, unrehearsed and unedited. It's a subject that isn't exclusive to LGBT life, but exhibit organizers say it's a subject worthy of investigation.
"There's not necessarily a direct link, 'oh, this is 'queer'?" Ector Simpson, the Center's director of cultural programs, said of the exhibit. "That becomes the conversation, 'Oh, why is this here?' Queer art is art."
To that end, exhibit organizers David Louis Fierman, 27, and RJ Supa, 34, brought together a mix of gay and straight artists, most of whom are based in New York.
In the Center's entryway, the first two pieces that flank visitors from the lobby's two walls are a bright neon sign and a crocheted blanket.
The sign, created by artist Andrea Bowers, bears a message, "Educate, Agitate, Organize" that holds clear relevance to the Center's mission of providing social services.
The blanket, by artist Josh Faught, features a sign about toxic chemicals taken from a new age healing center, and an excerpt of text at the side that came from a bathhouse.
"To me, it's very much about taking different aspects of fringe culture and putting them together in a different context," said Fierman. "It's creating something new out of something that is very established.
Elsewhere, Kalup Linzy's video piece, "Keys to Our Heart," mimics a 1940s style black and white soap opera, but turns the racial and sexual identity issues upside down, because the artist — a black man — voices all of the characters. Another video, Lucas Michael's "Being Bree," recreates a scene from 1971's "Klute," in which Jane Fonda's character, a prostitute, sits down with her therapist.
The manner in which these pieces and others are presented — throughout the Center's public walkways rather than in a confined gallery space — is designed in part to maximize their exposure to the 6,000 people who come in and out of the Center every week, many of whom may not typically feel comfortable at a show, organizers said.
"The art world and gallery world can be very intimidating to people," said Supa. "It's nice to look at art in a different context and have access to things."
"Living Live" is showing through February 28 at the LGBT Center at 208 W. 13th Street.
