Celebs, Queens, and Handsome Men: Jeremy Kost & Andy Warhol

Art can be pretty gay, and it's definitely not a bad thing. Only a few decades ago, homosexual art was considered threatening and crass, but today's world boasts loads of art made for, by and about queers. Currently on display at Mallick Williams & Co is the work of two incredible gay creators: photographer Jeremy Kost and the legendary Andy Warhol.

Entitled Of An Instance, the show features contributions from the Warhol Museum in Pittsburg to compliment Kost's original work. The exhibit is divided into three sections that demonstrate Kost and Warhol's mutual fascinations with celebrities, cross-dressers, and hunky men. Kost clearly takes Warhol as a role model, but the influence feels more like an extension of Warhol's aesthetic than an imitation. The first room features Kost's screen prints of celebrities like Grace Jones and Anna Winour that are so distorted they're almost anti-pop. Alongside Warhol's Polaroids of celebrities, the images raise questions of identity and symbology in light of the modern cult of celebrity.

In the following rooms, Kost showcases his signature Polaroid arrangements, which are beautiful and bursting with energy. His subjects, whether a queen or an Adonis, are rendered into symbols of beauty and desire. To top it all off, there's a video of the incomparable Sharon Needles, wandering the streets, reciting some kind of deranged monologue. The whole affair is a pop dream come true, and it will leave you craving the kind of art fix that comes once a generation.

Through May 31st, 2012

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