Created over the last nine years, Gate Of Heaven is a body of work that tries to confront my Catholic upbringing in the 90s in Boston, ground zero for the church sex abuse scandal, as a queer child. Consisting primarily of paintings and sculptures, the exhibition aims to bring the viewer into a place where the wonder of childhood coexists with and is corrupted by the horrors and violence of institutional powers and systemic abuse. The work is inhabited by childhood icons, people of the cloth, law enforcement officers, and sexual predators adrift in a bleak cesspool where hope is clung to, not as a positive gesture, but as a desperate act of survival. This is a site-specific exhibit, as the Distillery Gallery is a mere four blocks from the parish I grew up in and where the exhibit gets its name. Most of the work in the show will be available for free, as both a communist gesture and an attempt at cathartic communion.
-Frankie Symonds
Born in Boston in 1988, Frankie Symonds is a queer, transfeminine artist and filmmaker currently based in Salem, where she lives with her two cats, her roommates, and her roommates’ cat. In addition to making paintings, films, sculptures, and music, she has independently curated several exhibits and screenings of work by her peers and fellow queer and outsider artists.
On view: July 23 – August 20, 2022
Opening Reception: Saturday July 23, 7 - 10pm
With live multimedia performance by The Incontinence Project.
