OUR FIRST AND LAST LOVE, LYLE ASHTON HARRIS, QUEENS MUSEUM,
Bronx-born Lyle Ashton Harris gets a well overdue first major solo exhibition in New York and the Queens Museum. Our first and last love will feature over 40 works, including photos, collages, assemblages, and video installations from his four-decade career in which he has explored race, gender, and desire. These include Harris’ early works such as the black-and-white photographs Americas (Triptych), made amidst the Aids crisis in 1987-88, whereby he dons whiteface, and his seminal 1989 nude self-portrait series Constructs, donning a tulle skirt, tank top, wig, and beauty spot, it was an example of queer visibility at a time of crisis.
Interspersed throughout are 35mm Ektachrome snapshots and journal entries he created of life in the 1990s. This personal archive revisited in 2013, became the foundation for his book Today I Shall Judge Nothing That Occurs, featuring photographs of notable figures such as Angela Davis, bell hooks, and Nan Goldin, with essays by friends and colleagues like Mickalene Thomas and Rashid Johnson. More recent series will also be exhibited, including Shadow Works and performative self-portraits transformed into assemblages exploring identity, memory, and cultural heritage.
From 19 May – 22 September 2024 at Queens Museum, New York City
