Closing Reception: imago of a queer artist*

Join us on Saturday, May 20, for the closing reception of Levani’s imago of a queer artist*. The afternoon will begin at 3p with an exhibition walk-through led by the artist, followed by a reading from the forthcoming publication Cosmic Bottom by Brazilian-born poet, artist, scholar, and educator Lucas de Lima, and the drag performance Crown by multidisciplinary artist Passa Flora. Crown gives a glimpse into the balance of inner and outer self-improvement work, showcasing a contrast between the tension and beauty of self-discovery. 

Lucas de Lima is a Brazilian-born poet, artist, scholar, and educator. They are the author of Wet Land (Action Books 2014) and Tropical Sacrifice (Birds LLC 2022) as well as multiple chapbooks. A recipient of grants and fellowships from the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Canada Council for the Arts, they hold a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. de Lima lives in New York City and teaches at Mount Holyoke College.

Cosmic Bottom reclaims bottoming as a birthing of underworlds in the wake of ecological crisis. Expanding on bottoming as ritual toward permeable living, poetry models how to reconnect with oneself and the planet through the body’s openness. As the poet confronts shame and desire around the anus—the most hidden and taboo of orifices—acceptance of the body offers a gateway to ecologies real and imagined.

Passa Flora is a multidisciplinary artist. In celebration of imago of a queer artist*, they present a drag performance titled “Crown” based on their upcoming scarf collection release. Originally from Portland, Oregon, Passa calls upon their queer experience as a non-binary Black Bi-racial person of Panamanian descent to express their viewpoints on the world thru art and design.

Created through a series of drawings, paintings, sculpture, and personal objects, imago of a queer artist* offers space for an expanded notion of queerness as the capacity for porousness, fluidity, and transformation. The exhibition’s title (abbreviated here) is a deliberate tool that provides a conceptual framework for the show and responds to overwhelming systems of categorization used in the art world (and in larger discussions around identity politics). The need to assign labels within conversations around representation, while sometimes intended to improve clarity and communication, often creates rigid and pre-conceived images to which one is forced to adhere.

Program support provided by Canada Council for the Arts and exhibition support provided by VIDA Signs.