Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA | March 3 — May 27, 2023
Make Me Feel Mighty Real: Drag/Tech and The Queer Avatar (1969 — 2023) was a group exhibition at Honor Fraser Gallery that explored the intersection of drag performance, technology, and queer identity through digital avatars. The exhibition featured works spanning from 1969 to 2023, examining how queer individuals use technology to create, perform, and express identity in virtual spaces, challenging traditional notions of embodiment and representation.
This exhibition brought together artists working at the intersection of drag culture, technology, and queer identity. Merging the formal affordances of the white cube with the maximalist aesthetics of queer nightclubs, virtual chatrooms, and underground performance venues, the show transformed Honor Fraser into a living archive of glamor, grit, glitch, and gore.
The exhibition highlighted canonical queer artists, filmmakers, and performers alongside emerging and established contemporaries. The works featured explored how digital avatars serve as extensions of queer identity, allowing for new forms of expression and performance that transcend physical limitations. Through 3D modeling, animation, virtual reality, and interactive media, the artists created works that question and expand upon traditional understandings of gender, performance, and embodiment.
The exhibition contextualized the careers of legendary entertainers alongside the illustrious resilience of transgender icons, and juxtaposed the influence of queer collectives on mainstream culture with the monstrous excess of "post-internet" identities.
Visit the official Honor Fraser Gallery exhibition page for complete information, installation views, and details about the participating artists.