Art exhibits happen routinely in Western North Carolina, but it’s rare that galleries exclusively feature trans and nonbinary artists.
Now through October 28, “Expansive: A Southern Trans and Nonbinary Art Exhibit,” is on display at the Weizenblatt Gallery in Mars Hill. The exhibit is curated by Brennan Page Henshaw, artist-in-residence of Southern Equality Studios, an arts initiative of the Campaign For Southern Equality.
Through photography, paintings, sculpture, poetry, and other mediums, Expansive explores the rich and multi-dimensional lives of twelve individuals from the Appalachian community who revel in everything from dance and ministry to astrology.
The exhibit hall opens with a collection of portraits and personal objects, everything from old newspaper clippings and poems to a colorful, handmade tent that took more than 200 hours to sew. The items are from the subjects’ personal belongings. Each piece evokes raw, soulful, and often fantastical scenes in the subject’s life.
Liz Williams, Creative Director of Southern Equality Studios, describes the show as a "container" for the "layered and imaginative" trans community, which she feels has long been erased in the art world.
The show’s location in Mars Hill is also important to Williams. She hopes the show can help trans and gender nonconforming people remember that, even in the rural south, they’re not alone.
“We want to be able to give a sense of community to folks who might feel ostracized and to show them a vast and expansive experience," Williams said. "And these are just some of the stories shared and you're not alone and there's community waiting for you.”
Each display includes a QR code for an audio interview, where visitors can listen to artists discuss anything from “how much they love their cat to how anti-trans laws and violence has affected their lives to their art forms,” Page Henshaw said.
One artist featured in the exhibit, Prince Sueno, is a cosmetician and drag queen who provides gender-affirming beauty services. Along with their paintings, their display includes handmade clothing — including a white shirt decked out with pom poms, sequins, and flowers and a pair of black jeans with bedazzled pockets.
In their audio interview, on display at the exhibit, Sueno shares a bit of what it's been like for them to be a trans person in the south, and how their recent move here prompted them to more deeply explore their own identity.
"I didn't really realize how not black and not white I was, you know, before, because it didn't really matter. I didn't realize how like not feminine and not masculine I was," they shared.
"I didn't realize all these little boxes that people put me in when I came to the south that I didn't fit in. It wasn't like affecting me like, oh my God, like why doesn't nobody like me but it was like, okay. Well, where am I? You know, where am I in these boxes? Where am I on this line? Like let me kind of dive a little bit deeper here."
Listen to Sueno's full interview, and the rest of the collection, on the project's SoundCloud.
For Page Henshaw, as well as many of their peers, this is the first all-trans art exhibit that they’ve attended. The show also marks Page Henshaw’s first-ever artist residency.
“Through this project, I've watched people connect and meet and make friends that didn't know each other, as well as people getting set up with resources for gender affirming care that they didn't have before,” they told BPR.
“It's been life-changing for me as an artist, as well as just a person in this community, to see everyone come together and all the beautiful art and expressions that are out there. I just want to do more.”
While the show is made by and for the trans community, Page Henshaw sees Expansive as something the whole region can benefit from experiencing.
“My belief is that trans people are liberating themselves as well as everyone around them. We're all held in boxes that we didn't choose in this society and there's so much to learn from gender non-conforming people about joy and freedom and self-expression and art and community.”
