LGBTQ+ ARTISTS: SHOW AND TELL

Art has been an important tool for marginalized communities, serving as a means of expression, resistance, and healing. Art provides a voice to those who are silenced or overlooked, enabling them to share stories and experiences in ways that resonate deeply. Queer art is as varied as the LGBTQ+ individuals who make it—charged with a multiplicity of perspectives that reflect lives lived in tension with the expectations of society at-large.

In 2011, LUAG presented Show & Tell in response to controversy about the exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, earlier that same year. Co-curators Jeffrey Ludwig-Dicus and Mark Wonsidler sought to shed light on the LGBTQ+ artists in the University’s collection.  The process revealed works by canonical masters as well as the virtually unknown, working in a variety of media and themes.  Queer artists are part of the University’s collection but often remain invisible in exhibitions focused on other subjects. 

Other highlights of LUAG’s LGBTQ+ representation include 2011’s Andy In the Valley: Warhol Polaroids and Black-and-White photographs from Three Collections, 2012’s Keith Haring: Posters (both made possible by gifts from the artists’ respective foundations), and 2017’s María Martínez-Cañas retrospective, reflecting decades of collecting the artist’s work.

With help from our friends in Lehigh Libraries Special Collections, we are also highlighting a newly digitized archive of LUAG’s past publications. Featuring catalogs, calendars, announcements, and even scrapbooks from the earliest days of exhibitions on campus to the present, this archive sheds new light on the formative history of the arts at Lehigh, part of the distinctive DNA inspiring generations of makers. 

Explore archived publications about LGBTQ+ Artists below:

1979: Daniel W. Tereshko, Paintings

1996: Harvey Stein Photographs: Portrait of AIDS

2011: Show & Tell: Queer Artists in the LUAG Teaching Collection

2011: Andy in the Valley

2012: Keith Haring: Posters
 

 

PastFORWARD: Past exhibitions that continue to shape LUAG’s vision.

As Lehigh University Art Galleries (LUAG) celebrates its 100th birthday in 2025-2026, we are looking to our roots: revisiting past exhibitions and important themes throughout our network of galleries.  These are the ideas that have shaped our identity and which galvanize our vision for the future.

Technical innovation paired with creative thinking has fueled significant exhibitions in PHOTOGRAPHY and PRINTMAKING, while the questions what is art? and who are artists? led to showcasing LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS, SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.  These works have become part of LUAG’s extensive collection of over 20,000 works of art, a resource ready to shape minds for the next 100 years.

PHOTOGRAPHY: INTENTIONS & TECHNIQUES
Dubois Gallery, Maginnes Hall

SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS: HOWARD FINSTER
Siegel Gallery, Iacocca Hall • September 2, 2025 - March 13, 2026

LGBTQ+ ARTISTS: SHOW AND TELL
Fairchild-Martindale Study Gallery

PRINTMAKING: A PRINT IS A PARADOX PART 1
Alumni Memorial Gallery • September 2, 2025 - December 12, 2025

PRINTMAKING: A PRINT IS A PARADOX PART 2
Alumni Memorial Gallery • January 19, 2026 - May 22, 2026

LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS: ART HAS NO HOMELAND
The Gallery at Rauch Business Center