Queer Constellations: Photographs from the Aronowitz Family Collection

Queer Constellations: Photographs from the Aronowitz Family Collection is a sweeping exploration of identity and artistic lineage, presenting major photographs by and about queer artists. The exhibition celebrates a transformative gift of 50 photographs to the Columbus Museum of Art from the Columbus-based Aronowitz Family and significantly expands beyond it with an additional 100 works from the Aronowitz Family Collection. 

The exhibition borrows its title from Andrea Geyer’s Constellation series, where the artist transforms archival images of women by collaging them to create kaleidoscopic photographs about connection and visibility. With works ranging from the early 20th century to the present, Queer Constellations considers how photography has been used to portray queer life and identity in the United States. It features works by contemporary photographers including Catherine Opie, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Shikeith, and Wolfgang Tillmans, alongside photographers of previous generations, such as Peter Hujar, George Dureau, George Platt Lynes, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, and Robert Mapplethorpe. By weaving together photographs from different time periods, the exhibition argues that queer histories of photography are constellatory: layered, refracted, relational, and continually rewritten. 

The salon-style display of Queer Constellations evokes personal archives and everyday acts of arranging photographs through which queer histories have often been collected and shared. The installation, therefore, invites the viewer to read images through their own perspectives—for, as Vince Aletti argues, “Queer is in the eye of the beholder.” Queer Constellations is organized by Vince Aletti, independent curator and writer, and Kaitlin Booher, William and Sarah Ross Soter Associate Curator of Photography, with Rae Root, Roy Lichtenstein Curatorial Fellow.

Artists: David Armstrong, Richard Avedon, Amos Badertsher, Alvin Baltrop, Stephen Barker, JEB (Joan E. Biren), Bruce of LA, Emil Cadoo, Chivas Clem, Lucian Clergue, Shelby Sharie Cohen, Sam Contis, Jimmy DeSana, John Dugdale, George Dureau, John Edmonds, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Gerard Ferkel, Lola Flash, Jason Byron Gavann, Andrea Geyer, Robert Giard, Camilo Godoy, Nan Goldin, Tim Greathouse, Martine Gutierrez, Barbara Hammer, Ren Hang, Lyle Ashton Harris, Michael Harwood, George Hoyningen-Huene, Peter Hujar, Clifford Prince King, James Klosty, Ian Lewandowski, Herbert List, George Platt Lynes, Christopher Makos, Robert Mapplethorpe, Will McBride, Ryan McGinley, Mark McKnight, Duane Michals, Tyler Mitchell, Slava Mogutin, Mark Morrisroe, Carlos Motta, Zanele Muholi, Jim Novak, Erwin Olaf, Catherine Opie, Jack Pierson, Hunter Reynolds, Herb Ritts, Reynaldo Rivera, Marion Scemama, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Shikeith, Paul Smith, A.L. Steiner, Stanley Stellar, Andreas Sterzing, Arne Svenson, Mickalene Thomas, Wolfgang Tillmans, Arthur Tress, Carl Van Vechten, Wilhelm Von Gloeden, Andy Warhol, John Waters, David Wojnarowicz, Ajamu X