Meet Me in New York: Stanley Stellar
The Tribeca-based artist shows us the sites of queer liberation he frequented through the 1970s and ‘80s, admitting he is “such a product of New York”
The Tribeca-based artist shows us the sites of queer liberation he frequented through the 1970s and ‘80s, admitting he is “such a product of New York”
‘This is my truth,’ says Stanley Stellar of hanging out around New York’s historic piers, looking for subjects to photograph.
In this video, meet the legendary New York photographer Stanley Stellar, ahead of his solo presentation by Kapp Kapp as part of the Focus section of Frieze New York 2024. Stellar, who has traditionally shown his black-and-white images will be, for the first time, producing a group of ten previously unseen colour images from New York City’s piers of the 1970s and ’80s, a gay playground that he considered to be his ‘studio’ for many years.
Considering the fair’s location at The Shed, on the Westside of Manhattan, just a few steps from the old piers, Stellar’s presentation poignantly reflects the queer history of the city; it captures a fleeting moment of homosexual utopia before the devastation of HIV/AIDs, while connecting it to the moments of unabashed joy and sexual freedom in Stellar’s images. Among the few photographers working in colour at the piers at the time, Stellar’s photographs uniquely capture both their physical structures and the personalities they contained.
Further Information
The ‘Focus’ section is sponsored by Stone Island, whose subsidy, in addition to Frieze’s existing support, enables galleries to participate in the fair and ensures that Focus remains a place to discover new talent.
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Frieze New York is supported by global lead partner Deutsche Bank, continuing over two decades of a shared commitment to artistic excellence.
Focus is sponsored by Stone Island, whose subsidy, in addition to Frieze’s existing support, enables galleries to participate in the fair and ensures that Focus remains a place to discover new talent.
