This year the John B. Aird Gallery is celebrating Toronto PRIDE with an online slideshow accompanied by a playlist and PDF publication showcasing art by contemporary artists inspired by film with queer content, a queer film-maker or a queer actor, curated by Sarah Hunter (turtlart.ca)

Sarah writes, "Film has often been used as a code for queer issues especially before it was possible to be safely out and dealing with queer topics. A good example is the character Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca by Hitchcock. It is clear by some of the veiled inferences that Mrs. Danvers was in love with Rebecca in the story. You can use new contemporary movies, actors or directors to draw from or explore older films, directors, and actors that were closeted or hiding queer themes within their work"

28 Artists

John Abrams johnabramsart.com, Ben (Timothy Carl) Benedict benbenedict.ca, Deanna Bickford, Lee Campbell, Christopher Cape christophercape.com, Patrick DeCoste, James B. Fowler jamesfowleronline.com, Laurent Good @laurent.artworks, Arnie Guha @arnie_guha, Raymond Helkio raymondhelkio.com, Rhodri Kasperbauer facebook.com/RKasperbauer, Steve Khan artstevekhan.com, Peter Max Lawrence petermaxlawrence.com, Nina Levitt ninalevitt.com, Sue Lloyd @sue_lloyd_artist, Mike Longley @yyzmikey, Ronald Loranger, Julius Poncelet Manapul, Anastasia Meicholas anastasiam.ca, Damian Mellin @damianmellinart, Andy Pimpinella, Walter Segers waltersegers.com, Heidi Taillefer heiditaillefer.com, Hope Thompson hopethompson.net, Freddie Towe freddietowe.com, Sonja van Kerkhoff sonjavank.com, Mihail Vuchkov, Rebecca Payne rebeccapayne.ca

The John B. Aird Gallery (1985-present) is a self-funded non-profit public art gallery. The Gallery hosts up to nine exhibits per year, many accompanied by online publications https://airdgallery.org/publications, plus our annual Mistletoe Magic fundraiser. These exhibits provide participation opportunities for up to four hundred artists year upon year.

The Aird prides itself on being inclusive, hosting several large-group shows (online or in-situ), and two or three annual Arts Council and/or Scotiabank CONTACT Festival of Photography funded exhibits that pay CARFAC fees.

In September 2019 the Aird Gallery moved from the provincial government buildings at Bay and Wellesley, to its current temporary location in the city's oldest ARTSCAPE building on West-Queen-West. We foresee returning to our new 3,500-square-foot space on the second floor in the Macdonald Block by mid-decade.

Still from 19 Gay Men and The Throne of God, 2017, by Sonja van Kerkhoff