Introduction

In this selection of OutArt we have attempted to identify artists in the submission that place issues of art before issues of sexual identity or politics. This reassertion offers, in my opinion, an exhibition whose breath transcends the exclusivity of what was understood to comprise "a gay art exhibition". By foregrounding aesthetic issues the syntactical structure is by necessity broadened resulting in greater inclusivity.

"Queer Art" was a from of protest art, a necessary demonstration against the discrimination and marginalization of gays. It was also a celebratory art, an insistence on the wealth and dynamic of gay culture outside of straight culture. It defined itself on the basis on sub-cultural separation. Its polemical stance was effective to some extent in creating legislative and socio-structural change but it severed formal aesthetics from its judgement and required a narrow definition of content.

The brief of this exhibition was work that addressed the everyday in its ordinary and sometimes extraordinary manifestations. The banal rituals of daily life provide some of the most profound moments of questioning for an individual. This art has the ability to exquisitely witness these questions and provide company for our attempts to answer them. As such it functions as both and neither queer or straight art, it is simply art, a generous gesture.

Patrick T. Murphy
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