The QUEER|ART ARTIST EDITION is an annual neon sculpture commission, celebrating the work of contemporary artists in our community while paying homage to the queer trailblazers who came before them.

2024 COMMISSION: JEFFREY GIBSON

The 2024 Queer|Art Artist Edition was granted to multi-year Queer|Art|Mentorship Mentor & recent US representative at the 2024 Venice Bienniale, Jeffrey Gibson.

His new work, My heart beats for the one I love, borrows its name from “Heartbeat,” the 1981 hit single by disco/R&B singer Taana Gardner, and a personal favorite of Gibson’s. As Gibson states, “The release of this song coincided with the onset of the AIDS crisis and the loss of innumerable lives. The lyrics speak about loving, longing and heartbreak… I hope [the lyric] causes the viewer to think about someone, or a community, who they love and are loved by.”

This gesture falls in line with the rest of Gibson’s oeuvre, which often integrates song lyrics as textual elements or as piece titles. Gibson uses nostalgic musical fragments to remix the familiar with visual aesthetics culled from his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage.

The center of the piece is a drum fabricated in close collaboration with Lea Lattie of Earth Maidens, a North Carolina-based studio known for Indigenous crafts and instruments. The batter head of the drum features a glowing heart, conflating the embodied beat of one’s heart with the sonic rhythm of the percussive instrument. Animated with rainbow hues, My heart beats for the one I love illuminates a visual metaphor woven from popular culture, markers of queer intimacy, and collective cultural identity.

”The hand drum in the center,” Gibson says, “is used by individuals and in community to center oneself, to bring us together, to call for strength, and to send affirming energies out into the world. The combination of all these elements, along with the pulsing neon, pays homage to the LGBTQIA2S+ artists who have come before me, those who are currently working, and those future creative minds that we have not yet learned about.”

This piece was made in a limited edition of five (5) and is now available for purchase of $30,000. Each edition measures 37 in x 37 in x 6.5 in.

Contact L Marmon (QA Co-Executive Director, Finance & Fundraising) using the form below to inquire about purchasing an edition, or email lmarmon@queer-art.org.

ABOUT JEFFREY GIBSON

Jeffrey Gibson (born 1972) is an interdisciplinary artist. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson grew up in major urban centers in the United States, Germany, and Korea. He received a bachelor of fine arts in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995 and master of arts in painting at the Royal College of Art, London, in 1998. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Claremont Graduate University (2016) and the Institute of American Indian Arts (2023). He served as a Mentor for Queer|Art in 2022 and 2023. He is currently an artist-in-residence at Bard College.

Gibson has received many distinguished awards, including a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant (2012), and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award (2019). Gibson also conceived and co-edited the landmark volume An Indigenous Present (2023), which showcases diverse approaches to Indigenous concepts, forms, and media. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada; Portland Art Museum; Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian; and Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. Gibson represented the United States at the 2024 Venice Biennale, making him the first Indigenous artist ever to do so.

ABOUT LITE BRITE NEON STUDIO

Each year, Queer|Art commissions an artist in our growing community to create a neon sculpture that honors a queer icon of their choosing. To produce the work, the selected artist collaborates closely with Lite Brite Neon Studio, a New York-based fabrication studio specializing in artist collaborations, commercial installations, and custom lighting designs. Now in its third edition, proceeds provide direct support to Queer|Art artists and our extended community.

Lite Brite Neon Studio is a queer trans-led collective of craftspeople that specializes in the production of neon art, display, luminous visual props and architectural lighting through a collaborative approach. They seek to transform and transmit the power of light art and display as a viable medium to convey the mystical truths that surround us in everyday life. Their work has graced the facade of the Venice Biennale; appeared on the cover of The New York Times, Artforum, and Print Magazine; in the windows of MoMA, Tiffany & Co., and Bergdorf Goodman; and can be found in museums, galleries, and other visual displays worldwide. They also serve as a resource for the preservation and restoration of historic neon art and displays for many private and public collections including the Dia Art Foundation, MoMA, and the Whitney Museum of Art.

Queer artists have long mobilized the evocative qualities of neon to shed light on overlooked narratives and expand their practice in innovative ways. 2024 QAM Mentor Demian DinéYazhi ́, 2019 QA Prize Finalist Ja’Tovia Gary, 2023 Illuminations Grant Judge Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), 2011-2012 QAM Mentor Deb Kass, and 2023 Robert Giard Grant Judge Benjy Russell are just a few of the creatives pushing the medium’s boundaries. The Queer|Art Artist Edition seeks to continue this legacy of queer light-sculpting, all while raising funds for a positive cause.

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