Chimento Contemporary celebrated PRIDE 2019 with a witty show by artists Terry Sweeney and Lanier Laney titled: The Stonewall Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

This show celebrates the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, by honoring the multi-ethnic, gender non conforming heroes, who rioted in the streets of New York in June of ’69. The Stonewall Inn, owned by the mafia, catered to the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community, namely: drag queens, transgender people, effeminate young men, butch lesbians, male prostitutes, and homeless youth. Police raids on gay bars during the 60’s were routine. During the early morning hours of Saturday June 28th, an unexpected raid took a turn for the worse (previous raids usually included a police tip off, happened early in the evening  allowing for a quick return to business, after cash exchanged hands). The marginalized turned the tables on the police, barricading them in the bar. The crowds grew, momentum gathered, the riots continued into a second night, and a political movement was born.

Lanier Laney & Terry Sweeney are art provocateurs who irreverently satirize accepted societal and political norms. In their new show the art duo utilizes what they refer to as their ‘queer outlier pov’ to question the outdated patriarchal myths, propaganda and manipulative commercialization of the dominant culture. Their work utilizes performance art, sculpture, digitally altered photography, painting, and text.

I for one love the use of ‘rainbow unicorns’ as an alternative interpretation of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Imagine the type of  messages could come from these kinds of Horsemen: love for all, equal rights for all, equal pay for all, equal opportunity for all… the possibilities are endless. We’ve come a long way over the last 50 years, but we have so much more to achieve.

Show closes July 13th, 2019

Learn more at Chimento Contemporary