Tender Swagger examines the diverse artistic strategies LGBTQ-identified artists employ to explore identity, community, and connection. Featuring works from the permanent collection alongside select loans, the exhibition is part of the museum’s ongoing initiative Q+ Art, dedicated to elevating the contributions of queer artists.

Portraiture plays a central role in many of the works on view, ranging from highly representational to more ambiguous and playful depictions. Other artists turn to abstraction, using form, material, and gesture to challenge fixed notions of queerness and express the fluid, often unruly nature of desire, gender, and sexuality. The selected works foreground networks of care, intimacy, and kinship that shape and sustain queer community.

The exhibition presents numerous recent additions to the museum’s permanent collection, including works by Vaginal Davis, Elliott Hundley, Jackie Kirk, Gabriela Ruiz, and John Sonsini.

Tender Swagger is curated by David Evans Frantz, Curator-at-Large, Q+ Art, Palm Springs Art Museum.

Vaginal Davis, Unsung Super Heroines, 2021, Nagellack, glycerin, hydrogen peroxide, coconut oil, lip stain, mascara, blush, nail varnish, eyeshadow, Schminkstifte mit Spitzer, Aqua Net, Extra Super Hold hair spray, perfume and Tempera on found papers, postcards, business cards, and photographs vary, Museum purchase with funds provided by Nicole Panter Dailey.