With a love of psychedelic and surreal pop art, informed by their maverick sensibility, Ladypat and Boogaloo Stu are launching a year-long season of events. Queer Hearts gathers their eye-popping artworks and rallies local communities to celebrate queer heroes.
The project encompasses joint exhibitions of new artworks, workshop events and cultural exchanges. Ladypat and Boogaloo Stu have worked together on numerous creative projects over the past 20 years, with Ladypat creating many pop videos and live show visuals for Stu’s musical endeavors. Stu’s hand-made dioramas are a transgressive playground of unearthly delights; while Ladypat deconstructs his own vector art into hand-made fuzzy-felt pieces. With a symbiotic connection linking both artists’ work through aesthetics and digital techniques, the Queer Hearts exhibition is a logical progression for the duo; together, they have coined the entirely appropriate description fabestry (fabulous tapestry) to describe their style.
Partnering with local charity organisations (youth opportunity charity Brave Island on the Isle of Wight, and LGBTQ+ mental health charity MindOut in Brighton), the Queer Hearts Awards workshops will be a one-to-one experience for local queer people and their allies, to create an artwork with a message dedicated to a queer person who made a positive impact on their lives. These artworks will be displayed in the galleries and then digitally archived afterwards.
To close the project, in May 2023, a group of queer islanders will have the opportunity to visit Brighton Fringe, to educate, inspire and forge friendships among queer people and further develop a cultural dialogue between the two locations.
Further information can be found at: www.queerhearts.uk
