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Salman Toor, Two Boys with a Dog, 2020. Museum purchase: gift of Avo Samuelian and Hector Manuel Gonzalez. © Salman Toor; Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York.

Introduction

Any distance between us

July 17, 2021 - March 13, 2022

This exhibition explores the power and significance of intimate relationships in a selection of artworks made between 1954 and 2021. From quiet, unassuming expressions of affection to the openly erotic, these works foreground the relationships between artists and their subjects. By presenting their lives, loves, and chosen families, these artists reveal and articulate private worlds of vulnerability, tenderness, and desire.

Any distance between us recognizes the extraordinary importance of all expressions of intimacy as fundamental and equal. Charged with memories of relationships current and past, many of these objects and texts are significant statements of resistance and affirmation for LGBTQ+ artists and artists of color, reflecting 75 years of cultural shifts in representations of sexual orientation, gender identity, class, and race. Shaped by numerous historical events and political movements of the time, these works reflect or transform our understandings of how we become close to and care for one another.

–Stephen Truax, RISD BFA Painting, 2007 and Dominic Molon, Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art

Events

Talks and Conversations

Exhibition Overview: Any distance between us

Virtual program
Co-presented with RISD's Queer Alumni
October 1, 2021 / 12-1 pm
Talks and Conversations

Exhibition Tour: Any distance between us

October 9, 2021 / 2-3 pm

More Events

Projects & Publications

Publications

Selected Objects

Paul Cadmus

Male Nude, TS5, 1954

David Hockney

Peter Resting with Clothes on, St. Tropez, 1969

Keith Vaughan

Study for Figure with Towel, 1957

Nan Goldin

Vivienne in the Green Dress, NYC, 1980

Tom of Finland

Untitled, 1988

Andy Warhol

Keith Haring and Juan Dubose, 1983

Nicole Eisenman

Drinks at Julius, 2012

Sage Sohier

Bill and Ric, with Ric's daughter Kate, San Francisco, February 1987, 1987

Sage Sohier

Jean and Elaine, Santa Fe, New Mexico, June 1988, 1988

Deana Lawson

Binky and Tony Forever, 2009

Jack Pierson

Cry, 2009

Jess T. Dugan

Hank, 76, and Samm, 67, North Little Rock, AR, 2015, 2018

Angela Dufresne

Hanna in the Mirror II, 2005

Louis Fratino

Sleeping Tom, morning light, 2019

Doron Langberg

Mike, 2019
No Image Available

Kennedi Carter

Untitled, 2020

Salman Toor

Two Boys with a Dog, 2020
No Image Available

Aaron Gilbert

Greyhound Lines, 2021
No Image Available

Tom Burr

Black leather lovers, 2013

More objects +

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