Recent press

News at Brown.

Through workshops, grants and partnerships, Brown Arts Institute deepens ties with local artists.

“Lawrence said the scenes they filmed at BAI were the springboard for a future multimedia installation they hope to exhibit in Newport and Providence in 2024. Lawrence is hopeful that their decision to creatively interweave officers’ accounts in the entrapment scheme with scenes from the operetta will draw attention to what progress society has made, and has yet to make, with respect to LGBTQ+ rights and equality in the last century.

‘Queer and LGBTQ+ issues feel urgent right now,’ Lawrence said. ‘We have marriage equality, and HIV is no longer a death sentence — but at the same time, trans people and sex workers are among those routinely subject to surveillance and arrested as a result of entrapment. So this entrapment scheme might have happened 100 years ago, but it’s still relevant today.’” (Read More)

Association of Canadian Archivists.

PeepShow & Tell: Sex in archives.

“We have given assignments about an array of subjects: the planet Neptune, the lax public nudity laws in Seattle, the titling of porn videos, the architecture of discotheques. But we always keep returning to specific moments in queer (primarily gay male) histories, and that can lead to some fun archival research work. Once an artist is interested, we develop their assignment for a week or two and then give them roughly 6-8 weeks to complete their project, whether that is a comic style photo novel project about dithyrambs or a cut paper tug of war (to name two recent examples). We work with photographers and writers, but also with artists working in fiber, video, music, and other genres that are not traditional two-dimensional paper works. The most recent issue features an astrology project by House of Rice, Vancouver’s only all-Asian drag family.” (Read More)

Boston Globe.

FDR, sex, and the Navy: Two artists are uncovering a little-known piece of Newport history.

“Not long after World War I ended, about 30,000 sailors in the United States Navy returned to the seaside town of Newport. But shortly after they landed, the city was in the midst of a national scandal: sailors and civilian men were being targeted in a homophobic undercover operation to root out “immoral acts.”

Today, little is known about the investigation, but two local artists and co-publishers of Headmaster Magazine, Jason Tranchida and Matthew Lawrence, are shining a light on this little-known piece of Newport's history with a combination of sound and video work along with some other pieces they're still developing.” (Read More)

Edge Media.

Gay magazines and the evolution of male erotica.

“While this brainier new breed of gay erotica doesn't objectify bodies like the glossies of yore, the magazines themselves are crafted to be appreciated as objets d'art. Both Elska and Headmaster are perfect bound rather than stapled, and expensively printed on luxurious stock.

"We are total paper nerds," confides Lawrence.

To their makers and readers, these beautifully produced publications are not sources of shame to be hidden under the mattress. Instead, they are signifiers of pride to be displayed on the coffee table.” (Read More)