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"Are You A Friend Of Dorothy?" Group Exhibition

Past exhibition
17 June - 8 July 2023
  • Overview
  • Works
  • Press release
  • Installation Views
Overview
Painting of a bright blue skin person with a dark blue mustache by Justin Yoon
Hashimoto Contemporary is pleased to present Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? a group exhibition featuring works from Santiago Galeas, Jean-Paul Mallozzi, Juan Arango Palacios, Carlos Rodriguez and Justin Yoon.
 

Opening Night Reception:

Saturday, June 17th

6pm - 8pm

 

Gallery Hours:

Tuesday - Saturday / 10am - 6pm

Exhibition on view through July 8th

 

Hashimoto Contemporary LA

2754 S La Cienega Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90034

(Google Maps)

 

Advance Collector's Preview:

An advance collector's preview will be made available online before the exhibition opens, if you would like to receive a price list, please contact us at la@hashimotocontemporary.com

 

 

Featured artist Santiago Galeas on the exhibition:

"The phrase itself references the iconic character Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz,' film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's novel. In the story, Dorothy embarks on a journey through the fantastical Land of Oz, encountering various companions along the way, including the Cowardly Lion. This particular line spoken by the Cowardly Lion, 'Any friend of Dorothy must be our friend, as well,' resonated with queer individuals, who saw Dorothy as a representation of their own journeys and struggles for acceptance and freedom.


During a time when open expressions of queerness were risky, using coded language and cultural references like 'Are you a friend of Dorothy?' allowed queer individuals to discreetly identify one another and create a sense of community. It served as a password of sorts, signaling safety and understanding to those who could decipher its meaning.

The impact of this phrase on queer history cannot be understated. It became a tool for connection, support, and resilience in the face of adversity. By using coded language, queer individuals could find solace and kinship, often in unexpected places. The phrase also highlighted the power of storytelling and popular culture in shaping the queer experience, as it drew upon a beloved film to create a sense of shared identity and belonging.

This exhibition not only honors that history, it ties together the work of all five artists."

 
 
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Works
  • Painting of a blue muscular man, a purple woman in a green strapless gown and long gloves and a pink dog sitting on a table next to a martini glass at a bar filled with balloons.
    Justin Yoon, At Midnight, 2023
  • Painting of a woman in bright purple wearing a strapless dress, long gloves and a boa on a pink and purple background
    Justin Yoon, Marge Superstar, 2023
  • Painting of a green man in a 70s styled outfit of dress pants, open red button up shirt and jacket, leaning up against a bar with a spot light on him. There is a bottle of beer to his left and a lava lamp to his right and a pink dog in the background.
    Justin Yoon, Introducing Machoman Park, 2023
  • Painting of a man's face in blue with a bright purple background
    Justin Yoon, It Isn't That Long A Stay, 2023
  • Painting of a muscular, nude blue man, a purple woman in a dark purple strapless dress smoking a cigarette and a pink dog all standing in a body of water.
    Justin Yoon, In The Blue Of The Evening, 2023
  • Painting of a blue muscular man with his shirt off and a purple background.
    Justin Yoon, The Way I Feel Inside, 2023
  • Painting of a blue man in a tank top with very large muscles. The background is bright purple
    Justin Yoon, Sunset In Your Eyes, 2023
  • Painting of two men in a club like setting sitting down on a purple couch. One of the men is green wearing a suit with a bright orange shirt and the other is blue in a speedo holding a cocktail.
    Justin Yoon, I Fall In Love Too Easily, 2023
  • Painting of a green hand holding a photo of a blue muscular man in a speedo with the word Jazz! across the top.
    Justin Yoon, I Wish You Love, 2023
  • Painting of a naked man riding a white horse in the woods. The man is looking over his shoulder and the house is standing near a pedestal.
    Carlos Rodriguez, Horse Rider No. 1, 2023
  • Painting of several men in speedos laying on beach towels on the grass surrounding a statue of a naked angel sitting on a pedestal.
    Carlos Rodriguez, Cupid’s Garden, 2023
  • Painting of a fountain with a man on this hands and knees with water coming out of his mouth and penis. On top of the man is another man in white shorts laying on top of him. In the background are hills, a rainbow and a temple.
    Carlos Rodriguez, The Temple de La Sybille, 2023
  • Painting of a fountain with a merman and a man linking arms above their heads, looking down into the water. Only their torsos are above the water and the merman has his fin out of the water and one of the mans feet is out as well. They are spitting water out of their mouths. There are two large fish in the water near them and they have water spitting out of their mouths as well.
    Carlos Rodriguez, The Myth Of Nerites, 2023
  • Painting of a fountain with a naked man standing and peeing into the fountain. There are bushes and a cityscape behind it.
    Carlos Rodriguez, Fountain No. 1 Drunken Hercules, 2023
  • Painting of a man with one arm around laying across the top of his head and an orange bird on his shoulder. In the background is a dark green bush and a pale blue sky.
    Carlos Rodriguez, Morning Conversation, 2023
  • Painting of a statue of a man with his arms on a pedestal and a yellow cat on top of the pedestal with its arm on the mans arm. There are dark green bushes in the background and a pink blue sky.
    Carlos Rodriguez, The Guardians, 2023
  • Painting of a persons naked back with a large tattoo of an angel holding someone down with their foot and a rose tattoo on the back of their arm. The person is painted in bright green and black
    Juan Arango Palacios, Back Piece, 2023
  • Painted of a naked person with several tattoos including a rainbow on their stomach, a snake and three stars on their shoulders, an angel on their ribs and a horse shoe on their chest. The person is painted in bright pink and black.
    Juan Arango Palacios, Arco Iris, 2023
  • Painting of two naked people sitting next to each other, one has their arm around the others shoulder. They both have several tattoos on their chest, bodies and arms.
    Juan Arango Palacios, Eclipse, 2023
  • Painting of two people (one pink, one orange) kissing with their shirts off, revealing several tattoos on a blue background with a border of chains.
    Juan Arango Palacios, Heavy Handed, 2023
  • Painting of a man's bare body wearing a black under garment with a cheetah tattoo on his stomach and Mother Mary tattoo on his upper thigh on a blue background with a border of chains.
    Juan Arango Palacios, Tanga, 2023
  • Painting of two people embracing each other under a pink neon light.
    Jean-Paul Mallozzi, Everybody's Free To Feel Good, 2023
  • Painting of two men embracing each other. They are both shirtless, one is wearing dark blue underwear. The other is turning in to kiss the other on the cheek.
    Jean-Paul Mallozzi, Tease, 2023
  • Painting of two people men embracing each other on a bed with white linens. The window is open behind them, you can see greenery outside. Above the bed is a ceiling fan. The walls in the room are painted a off white.
    Jean-Paul Mallozzi, Saturday, 2023
  • Painting of a man laying the beach under the shade of an umbrella. There is another man standing above him, you can only see the bottom half of his body, he is wearing a yellow speedo. In the background is the ocean.
    Jean-Paul Mallozzi, You Missed A Spot, 2023
  • Painting of two people on a bed in the dark. One person is holding the other from behind. There is a nightstand with a small white lamp.
    Jean-Paul Mallozzi, Lean Back More, 2022
  • Self portrait of the artist with his hand to his chin wearing a white sleeveless shirt. He has a short beard and dark curly hair.
    Jean-Paul Mallozzi, Me In Studio, 2023
  • Portrait of a man with short dark brown hair, bushy eyebrows, wearing a green shirt on a dark green background.
    Jean-Paul Mallozzi, Nature Boy, 2023
  • Painting of a person with long dark hair and facial hair. They are wearing a corset dress. In the background is tall grass.
    Santiago Galeas, Aqui y Allá, 2023
  • Painting of a person with their hands reaching towards their chin. They have short dark hair and eyes. In the background is a purple sky and trees.
    Santiago Galeas, Zurda, 2023
  • Portrait of a man with facial hair, dark hair and eyes with a open coat and a long necklace on an orange background.
    Santiago Galeas, Mauricio, 2023
  • Self portrait of the artist in pink. His face is turned to the side, he is shirtless.
    Santiago Galeas, Self Portrait in Pink, 2023
Press release

LOS ANGELES—Hashimoto Contemporary is pleased to present Are You A Friend of Dorothy? a group exhibition featuring new works by Santiago Galeas, Jean-Paul Mallozzi, Juan Arango Palacios, Carlos Rodriguez, and Justin Yoon. Each artist explores their identity and sexuality in emotive, figurative painting to create depictions of joy, belonging, and queer intimacy.

 

 

Justin Yoon has created a cast of characters that serve as archetypical figures in his candy-coated, cinematic universe. Blue Dream appears glistening in a speedo to display his divinely muscled physique. His constant
companions—
Marge the Space Queen, glamorous in floor length gowns, and Five Poundz the pink puppy—attend parties and picnics together, confident and at ease with one another no matter the setting. Making his debut appearance, Machoman Park joins the gang and continues Yoon’s depiction of the Gay Asian male gaze. Yoon describes informative moments of “Sharing eye contact with an attractive man across the bar, looking into his eyes right after you’ve kissed, or even seeing your dear friends, whom you call ‘Your People,’ looking back at you as you stumble back to them at a party; all of these moments of glances become something more monumental and poetic to us, as without them, we wouldn't be who we are.”

 

 

Mexico City-based Carlos Rodriguez’s latest body of work contemporizes Grecian mythology, depicting strong yet soft men rollicking with classical statues. Sensuous and playful, Rodriguez’s figures display tenderness in their interactions. The Myth of Nerites references the love between the sea deities Nerites and Poseidon: one of hard stone the other of soft flesh, the men clasp each other in a colonnaded pool, intertwined and at rest with one another. Throughout the new work, Rodriguez shapes his figures with statuesque, god-like forms while preserving their humanity, sensitivity, and revelry.

 

 

Juan Arango Palacios’s vibrant and detailed works paint queer bodies at rest, allowing the viewer to peek at snapshots of intimacy and introspection. The chromatic torsos are festooned with tattoos, giving hints at each figure’s life and history. Through his paintings, Palacios represents “memories, places, people, and archetypes that I associate with the safety, survival, and endurance of queer bodies in spaces that challenge their existence.”

 

 

Jean-Paul Mallozzi’s fluid and tactile mark making renders scenes of quiet intimacy and brash joy. Mallozzi’s abstracted figures swirl with energy and emotion from quiet morning embraces in a sun drenched bed to ebullient, neon lit club scenes. Each work offers a glimpse into Mallozzi’s “formative memories, centered around coming out in the late 1990s. This period was marked by pure joy, terror, wonder, and fear, which forced me to assimilate into a complex culture of twinks, jocks, daddies, nerds, club kids, and gaymers who were both welcoming and judgmental, loving and spiteful, supportive and eviscerating.”

 

Santiago Galeas uses his media as metaphor to illustrate the duality of his subjects. Gazing out from forested landscapes and split between two worlds, Galeas’s figures are at once grounded in the deciduous forests of the continental U.S., tightly rendered in oil, and in the bright, otherworldly landscapes of their diasporic homelands, rendered in loose, energetic acrylic. Often depicting friends and admired community members, Galeas subtly codes the sitters’ multi-faceted identities into their portraits, folding in fond memories, nods to family histories, and experiences with queerness.

 

 

Rooted in personal narratives and lore, all five artists have created their own visual languages to imagine queer utopias filled with safety, community, tenderness and serenity. As the Cowardly Lion said while making his way through the Land of Oz, “Any friend of Dorothy must be our friend, as well.”

Installation Views
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.
  • Installation shot of the group exhibition Are You A Friend Of Dorothy? at Hashimoto Contemporary LA.

Related artist

  • painting of two male figures draped over each other

    Carlos Rodriguez

Back to Past exhibitions

New York City:

54 Ludlow St.

New York, NY 10002

San Francisco:

Minnesota Street Project

1275 Minnesota St. 

San Francisco, CA 94107

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