The Brookfield Craft Center invited LGBTQIA+ artists to submit works letting us know what they want to say for Say It Loud! Usually when we have a call to artists, we have a theme, and we requested works speaking to specific topics.
This year we feel that there is so much to speak about that we would like to hear what you have to tell us. Say It Loud! is a juried show which will run from July 26th through August 24th and is open to all local LGBTQIA+ artists who design and create their own work in any of the following categories: Clay/Ceramic, Drawing, Fiber, Glass, Jewelry, Metal, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Wood, Video.
Works included are not necessarily newly created. Some are new, and some are pieces that were created years ago with messages that are still relevant or have messages that have changed with current events.
Say It Loud! is guest curated by Nora O’Neill. Nora is co-chair of Bethel CT Pride. She’s the one that gets to be in Pride’s promo videos jumping out of bushes or throwing disco balls. She/sir, ace, butch. She has exhibited sculptures and paintings locally through Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut.
Artists Directory
Contact gallery@brookfieldcraft.org or call 203-775-4526 to purchase a piece.
Joseph Annino
Society assumes defaults. Queerness is not the default, nor will it ever be on its own. Working toward a place where the default is left undefined and all possibilities are open, would bring true liberation for the full range of sexuality and gender. Nakedness is that starting point where nothing is assumed.
Isobel and Iceman 3 Mixed Media Graphite, water soluable wax crayon on acrylic coated kozo paper 25″ x 37″ $600
Kristen Boisvert
I was recounting some changes that I was noticing in myself since starting therapy. I was more attuned with my body. I was able to feel more and be a part of the world more. My therapist smiled and said, ‘This is like watching a flower open.’
Bloom Digital Photography CanonR5, projector 8″ x 12 ” NFS
Ivy A Burk
Queer women struggle with feeling accepted in most situations for so many reasons, and I feel inclined to explore those feelings.
Saltwater Digital Painting tablet and stylus N/A $20 – $50 size dependent
Lee Champagne
My husband’s top surgery caused a significant emotional shift for him, altering how he interacts with the world as if his spirit has awakened. He lives for himself in a body that resonates. My projects including I Watch Him Come to Life revolve around themes of intimacy, loss, and personal growth.
Fluff Season Photography Inkjet print mounted on foam board 13″ x 19″ $50
Teke Cocina
I have been exploring biblical male-on-male violence. I use color, form, and precise halftone layers to both queer the interaction between the figures and to highlight the entangling effect that violence between the two parties has on each other.
Peacock Hair Pull Printmaking Screenprint on Rives BFK Gray 15″ x 20″ $300
Gerrit DeVries
Uncertainty brings disharmony. Too many voices: loud, unbearable, soft, and quiet, from differing opinions and uncertain futures, creates noise and prevents people from listening, from loving. This quilt represents my love, harmonizing with many, that to learn to love ourselves and each other, even through uncertainty, involves listening, learning, and expressing ourselves with an open heart and mind, that love is love. Designed and created by Gerrit and quilted by Erin Byrne of Cotton Candy Fabrics.
Harmonize Together – Love Is Love Fiber Moda Grunge fabric, Aurfili thread 46″ x 42.5″ $500
Emily Denaro
Particle Zoo portrays the inner workings of the universe on stage via a quartet of male-identifying bodies, embodying the organized chaos of the building blocks of life through a thrilling feast of athleticism, comedy, and play.
Pilobolus’s Particle Zoo Photography 18″ x 14″ $200 per or lot of 4 for $750
Jeremy Farrell
Art is not always a calming act for me, but often an intense and effective way to express powerful and complex emotions. Until we learn to love ourselves, we cannot truly figure out who we are. Until then all we have is fraying information. Sometimes we wake up with pockets full of unreadable notes.
Pockets Full of Unreadable Notes Drawing Colored pencil, colored pen on paper 10.5″ x 13.5″ NFS
Lys Guillorn
Fluidity and change are part of the living fabric of being. As someone who changes their mode of expression regularly, I treat my closet like an archive. Along with beloved pieces in current rotation, it’s holding some amazing dresses I’m not currently wearing. I might wear them again someday, as the pendulum swings.
Changing Room Fiber Hand spun and commercial yarn, metallic fiber, knitting needles, ribbon, thread. 18″ x 23″ $350
John Kildahl
This work represents an individual trying to find their way. My work is most often done without a model or a muse but from what is felt internally in this case unsure and confused.
Alass Painting Acyrlic on canvas 18″ x 24″ $235
Emily Marquis
I’ve felt the pressure to explain, soften, or justify my identity in spaces that weren’t always safe or welcoming. This piece reclaims my right to say no to heteronormativity, to invisibility, to assumptions and to do so with humor and clarity.
Meow Means No Painting Oil on Canvas 30″ x 40″ $350
Emmanuel Morfa
I dabble in all kinds of different mediums of art. I am focusing on digital art, but I have tons of physical pieces relating to the queer experience and the struggles in it. This piece represents attacks of hate crimes and violence on queer youth.
Sharp violence upon a bleeding heart Painting Acrylic paint and mod podge on canvas 16″ x 20″ NFS
Keven Nelson
Eclectic is how I see my photographic endeavors. Whatever is intriguingly captured, after passing my perusal, is hopefully delivered for viewing. I rarely enhance or alter a full frame photograph.
Partial Presence Photography 16″ x 20″ $275
Honorah O'Neill
Be weird, be a bit off-putting, be loud. Revel in being cringe when the trend is to make yourself small, likeable, and as empty of meaning as possible.
Scream Painting Acrylic on canvas 36″ x 12″ $150
Tim Rees
My family and especially my niece have been supportive of my art and encouraged me to take a leap and share my art with the public. I’m working through grief and letting the world know, I’m no longer making stick figures.
They Make Me Smile Painting Acrylic paint and glitter 10″ x 14″ NFS
Shannon Riley
I made this piece as a response to the changing political climate. My love and respect for America needed to show through along with the pain, fear and uncertainty facing our nation which ends in a Pride flag, a grouping of the raised fists a symbol of resistance and solidarity, a gesture with a long history of representing protest and unity. Each fist holds a symbol of a group or democratic ideal that under threat.
The Obsession with the Idea that it is Not Enough, Yet Painting Acrylic on stretched canvas 6ft” x 3ft” NFS
Isabel Sorrells
My paintings examine the impact of my experience as a queer sexual assault survivor on the relationship between my body, appearance, and sense of identity, engaging with themes of objectification, transformation, and survival by re imagining myself as an invincible, monstrous, ever-changing and many-limbed creature–too powerful and bizarre to harm or desire.
Baby Monster II Painting Oil on canvas 36 x 24″ $1,080
Percival Thompson
Being transmasculine is deeply intertwined with my very being, and creating art has been a way of exploring that tumultuous relationship between my own happiness and the way the world perceives me.
Hyper-immobility Painting Acrylic on canvas 30″ x 24″ $450
Ari Vega
My work is deeply personal and political—I paint to process my experiences and reclaim my voice after years of silence and erasure. I’m especially drawn to bold color, symbolism, and emotion as tools for storytelling.
Resistance Painting Acrylic paint on canvas 12″ x 16 ” $150
