The John Burton Harter Foundation proudly presents “Homoeroticism in Gay Art: Then and Now,” a panel discussion examining the art of Patrick Angus (1953-1992) and John Burton Harter (1940-2002) and the recent work of artists, John Brooks, Ceirra Evans, and Jackson Markovic.
The panel will take place on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at 3:00 p.m. at Institute 193, 215 N. Limestone, Lexington, KY. A reception will follow.
The panel is inspired by the publication A Tale of Two Cities: Patrick Angus in New York and J. B. Harter in New Orleans. Attendees will receive a complimentary copy, featuring an essay by curator and art critic David S. Rubin.
Panelists will discuss the works of Angus and Harter, both of whom led the use of gay male erotic imagery in paintings of the late 20th century, but who never received commercial or critical success during their lifetimes. Brooks, Evans, and Markovic will also focus on homoerotic themes and imagery in their own artwork.
“Placing Angus and Harter side-by-side helps show that even in the throes of the AIDS epidemic, the gay community remained a vibrant place where people lived and loved,” said Jack Sullivan, John Burton Harter Foundation Advisor.
Institute 193 is located in downtown Lexington, KY. Free street parking is available.
For more information, please email info@institute193.org
Angus and Harter: A Realist and an Idealist
Although more than ten years apart in age, Patrick Angus and John Burton Harter realized they were gay in the late 1960s, just as the sexual revolution was accelerating. Whereas Angus remained fairly open about his sexual orientation, Harter stayed closeted until the early 1990s, after both of his parents were deceased.
In the 1980s, Angus created a significant body of paintings documenting the performances, cruising, and hustling that took place at the Gaiety Theater. This male strip club in New York City was frequented mostly by gay men who socialized with the models in lounge areas and cruised in the theater while pornographic movies were shown.
Working in a style influenced by the paintings of David Hockney and the Bay Area Figurative School, Angus showed life at the Gaiety using gestural brushwork in a manner replicating the immediacy of the early 20th-century Ash Can School. He also viewed his subject matter from vantage points that put the viewer in the audience. Because photography was not permitted at the Gaiety, Angus worked primarily from memory. The late playwright Robert Patrick referred to him as “The Toulouse-Lautrec of Times Square.”
Although there were no male strip clubs in New Orleans, where Harter lived and worked as a museum curator, he nevertheless drew inspiration for his paintings and drawings of the 1990s from a gay culture that included a bathhouse (also a subject for Angus), private sex parties, and outdoor cruising. Harter’s paintings are based on photographs he took of his models, most of whom were young men that he met at the gym or on the street.
Whereas Angus was a realist, in the sense that he sought to recreate what it felt like to be at the Gaiety, Harter was an idealist who preferred the classical style of antiquity and the Renaissance, which had influenced the homoerotic paintings of Paul Cadmus in the 1930s.
About the Panelists
John Brooks
Born in central Kentucky in 1978, Brooks studied political science and English literature at the College of Charleston, South Carolina. His work has been exhibited widely in the United States, including at the North Carolina Museum of Art Winston-Salem and the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh), and Europe, and is held in the collections of Speed Art Museum, Grinnell College Museum of Art, The University of Kentucky Medical Center, OZ Arts, 21C, Beth Rudin DeWoody / The Bunker, and numerous other private collections. The New Yorker, Texte Zur Kunst, Weltkunst, The New York Review of Books, The Yale Review, and Action, Spectacle have published his paintings and drawings. Brooks’ poetry has been published by The Cortland Review, Appalachian Review, Pilot Press, Good River Review, Assaracus, East by Northeast, and Plainsongs. He has written for BOMB, Strange Fire Collective, Ruckus Journal, and UnderMain. Over the last two decades, Brooks spent several years in London and Chicago, but was based primarily in Louisville, Kentucky until summer 2024 when he relocated to Los Angeles. From 2017-2022, Brooks operated Quappi Projects, a contemporary art gallery focusing on exhibiting work reflecting the zeitgeist, where he curated over twenty-five exhibitions. In spring 2025, Brooks launched Other Swans, a digital magazine featuring conversations with other creatives.
Ceirra Evans
Ceirra Evans is a Louisville-based painter depicting Appalachia and the working-class southern narrative. Ceirra’s work has been reviewed by Hyperallergic, The New Yorker and other publications. Her work has been exhibited with 21c Louisville and is held in the Speed Art Museum’s permanent collection.
Born and raised in Eastern Kentucky, Evans’ body of work depicts scenes directly from her early life in the foothills of the Appalachian region. Her work depicts stories of generational poverty, queerness, familial relationships and addiction. Ceirra’s work uses humor and illustration to sift through the discourse critiquing the region.
Jackson Markovic
Jackson Markovic (he/him, b.2000) is an artist and writer born and raised in Atlanta, GA. Markovic received his BFA from the Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design in 2022. Previous solo exhibitions include Is It All Over My Face? at Day & Night Projects and Show Me Love at Hawkins HQ, both located in Atlanta. He is a contributing writer for Burnaway. Markovic is currently a Teaching Artist Fellow at the Atlanta Center for Photography, where he teaches and maintains his studio practice.