Queer Zines From the Pre-MySpace Era and More Art Shows This Week

White Lies
Opening Thursday, October 11 at Derek Eller Gallery, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through November 11.

For better or for worse, we can all agree something there’s no shortage of in today’s world is information. From partisan pundits to much-maligned “fake news” to legitimate educational content, it’s hard to tune it all out completely, even if you try. This is evident in the work of painter Despina Stokou. What initially looks like colorful abstract work is revealed to be artistic, chaotic renderings of words: Twitter posts, political commentary, hashtags, and the multifaceted feelings of people living in America today. But of course, some of these painted-on phrases have become hard to understand, quite literally erased by broad strokes of white. Sound familiar?

For Opacity
Opening Friday, October 12 at The Drawing Center, 6 pm to 8 pm. On view through February 3.

As this is an exhibition at The Drawing Center, it’s only natural that the work on view consist of drawings. The three artists showing their work beginning on Friday—Elijah Burgher, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Nathaniel Mary Quinn, two of which are having their museum exhibition debut—work “almost exclusively” in drawing, more specifically manifesting in the form of portraiture. Though these artists use the same medium and the same general topic, their work varies greatly, demonstrating the vast potential that one art form can have.

Queer Zines / Queer Art
Opening Friday, October 12 at Bureau of General Services-Queer Division, 6 pm to 9 pm. On view through January 5.

Zines are still very popular nowadays, a rare glimpse of print-based hope in an era where other tactile forms of published work are finding it harder and harder to stay afloat. But these Xeroxed gems have a long and storied history that stretches back before anyone overshared about their life online, because there wasn’t really any place to do so. Presented as part of the NY Queer Zine Fair, Queer Zines / Queer Art is an exhibition that acts simultaneously as a showcase for the art of select participants in the zine fair, a history of queer zines from the pre-Myspace era (gasp), and the unveiling of a special edition of KNOWSGAY, a queer art publication.