AFRU Gallery is proud to present:
It’s A Pleasure! an exhibition and night of performances of queer portraiture, video, and art celebrating pride and pleasure as protest.
Venue: AFRU Gallery
534 SE Oak St., Portland, OR, 97214
Opening Night: July 7, 2023, 7pm-11pm
Performances begin at 8pm
Visual Artists: Pepper Pepper, Michael Espinoza, and Nick Orr
Performances by: Svetlana Trantastic, Reigning Miss Gay Pride of Portland,
Kimberly Michelle Westwood
Musical guests: The Ukulezzies
Pink Moment Horizon by Pepper Pepper
In a time when wild anti-trans and anti-drag rhetoric is sweeping the nation, It’s a Pleasure! claims the AFRU Gallery as a queer creative and social space to celebrate multiple Pacific Northwest LGBTQ+ visual and performing artists' portraits, paintings, drawings, and performances as an act of pleasure and protest.
The visual exhibition features embroidered figures and queer spaces by non-binary artist Michael Espinoza, celebrated drag artist Pepper Pepper’s hyper-pink video installation, and Nick Orr’s richly figurative paintings and drawings. Opening night performances feature Svetlana Trantastic, Kimberly Michelle Westwood, and The Ukulezzies, with hand-painted backdrops by Jessica Hassler. It’s a Pleasure! was curated by Pepper Pepper and Svetlana Trantastic. Opening night is free to attend and open to everyone.
BIOGRAPHIES
Svetlana Trantastic (Performance Curator)
Svetlana Trantastic is the current reigning Queen of Portland Drag Comedy. Her live performances, puppet shows, and stand-up comedy have been part of Portland nightlife since 2012. She is irreverent, feminist, raunchy, and might make your inner child cry.
Pepper Pepper (Visual Arts Curator)
Pepper creates performances, drag, and experimental dance that explores gender, technology, and vulnerability. As a visual artist, Pepper makes videos, installations, and drawings that connect ideas, impulses, and concepts with figurative and abstract color fields. Pepper is a 2020 Oregon Arts Commission Visual Arts Fellow.
Michael Espinoza (Artist)
Michael Espinoza is a non-binary, multi-racial, multi-disciplinary artist whose work embodies & embraces the undone artistic practices of Queer Ancestors lost to persecution, disease, fatal sadness, & closets. Currently, their practice borrows strategies from embroidery, quilting, digital media, sculpture & photography to explore sex & sexuality, intersectional identities, intimacy, the body, & contact with the dead. They have previously exhibited live performance, site-specific installations, & video; their work can be found in public art collections, digital spaces, domestic & international group shows, & the many spaces intended for queer joy.
Nick Orr (Artist)
Nicholas Orr (he/him) was raised in Jamaica and Florida. He graduated from college with a BFA in illustration in Detroit. He moved a few times after leaving Detroit and settled in Portland, Oregon, in 2007 to continue his illustration career and get involved in the local comic book industry. In his richly figurative work, Nicholas focuses on emotionally connecting his viewer with his art. He creates a mood, a feeling, a fantasy of what the world could be, emphasizing the communities of color. He hopes to work on projects that help promote a broader change in our idea of what we see as different.
The Ukulezzies (Opening Night Band)
The Ukulezzies are a pair of star-crossed lovers that eloped in New Orleans and ran away to find a fresh start on the West Coast where they heard tales of inclusion and folks “keeping it weird.” When listening to their music you can expect cover songs from various genres and maybe some comedic life lessons too.
ABOUT AFRU GALLERY
Art Freaks R Us / AFRU Gallery is a nonprofit, volunteer-run arts collective in Portland, Oregon that presents monthly art exhibitions, offers affordable studio space to artists and performers, and hosts free classes and workshops to the wider community. Over the years, AFRU has become an important incubator for visual and performing artists who may difficulty getting their work into mainstream venues.
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