ARTISTS

Ajamu X is an internationally acclaimed photographic artist and one of Britain’s leading specialist on Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender history. His work has been shown in work in galleries, museums and alternative places around the world including New York, London, Sao Paulo, Berlin and Amsterdam.
He has worked with issues of diversity, community and difference within a wide range of cultural and social spaces including galleries, museums, archives, health and social care and education settings for over 20 years. Also, the range of stakeholders has been varied including charities, individuals, academics, artists, and activists.

Del Lagrace Volcano As a gender variant visual artist I access ‘technologies of gender’ in order to amplify rather than erase the hermaphroditic traces of my body. I name myself. A gender abolitionist. A part time gender terrorist. An intentional mutation and intersex by design, (as opposed to diagnosis), in order to distinguish my journey from the thousands of intersex individuals who have had their ‘ambiguous’ bodies mutilated and disfigured in a misguided attempt at ‘normalization’. I believe in crossing the line as many times as it takes to build a bridge we can all walk across.

Ins A Kromminga: who am I and why am I doing what I do? this is a kinda private question, no? but that´s what I believe is a fact: the private is political, and thus has social or and cultural relevance. We are all not free from being labeled, put to our place, identified, recognized and confirmed or rejected – some of the labels I was given or that I have claimed for myself are: intersex, artist, sick, friend, idiot, furry, nerd, woman, man, expert, customer, tall, left-handed, lazy, fan, funny, crazy. My website is mainly about my artwork and the issues closely related to what triggers me. You can find out more and other aspects of me by browsing through this site and following the links, and you might find my activist or my nerdy sides besides others, all this might be me and might be what I do.

Keith Haring didn’t want to change the world but he thought that art could have a positive influence on humankind. As he said “I don’t think art is propaganda; it should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.”
 Haring was born in 1958 in Pennsylvania where he started to study art but soon decided to move to NY in order to attend the School of Visual Arts. Here he found an alternative art community that was developing in the downtown streets, the subways and spaces in clubs and former dance halls. In 1980, Haring found a highly effective medium that allowed him to communicate with the wider audience he desired, when he noticed the unused advertising panels covered with matte black paper in a subway station. He began to create drawings in white chalk upon these blank paper panels throughout the subway system. The subway became a laboratory for experimenting his seamless flow of images. He devoted much of his time to public works and he always supported charity for hospitals, children’s care center and orphanages. After he was diagnosed with AIDS, he established the Keith Haring Foundation in 1989 to provide funding and imagery to AIDS organizations and children’s programs, and to expand the audience for Haring’s work through exhibitions, publications and the licensing of his images.He died at the age of 31 in 1990. Even 20 years after his death he’s still the subject of several international retrospectives. His works represent the New York street’s culture of the ’80s and his love for innovation is reflected in every single piece of his art.
“Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic.” K.H.

Lola Flash‘s main preoccupations are racism, sexism and homophobia. She has exercised her unique skills and palette through challenging bodies of work which have bought her much attention both in Europe and the U.S.
Flash was born in the United States and is of African/Native American descent. She spent 10yrs in London where she regularly exhibited her work and also attained her MA. A classic Flash photograph ‘Stay afloat, use a rubber’ is part of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum collection.
She is now based in New York where she continues to teach and create.