Alexis Clements

"You kill people and break things for a living."
--Pete Hegseth, giving very eloquent instructions to military generals flown in for this momentous occasion

Atlanta Art Fair Shines a Spotlight on the Southeast The second edition of the show embraced unexpected artworks, price transparency, and a spirit of community among galleries from the region.

While I was in Atlanta for the Art Papers symposium, I also stopped in to the #AtlantaArtFair, which was different in many ways from other art fairs I’ve attended before. You can read my coverage below.

Alice Austen’s Sapphic Siren Song A water-themed, lesbian-centric group exhibition in Staten Island explores the sea’s long association with a feminine force.

Mermaids, selkies, enormous man-eating mollusk shells, and lesbians - oh my! Had fun going down into the femme maelstrom for this one about the show currently up the Alice Austen Museum. Read it @hyperallergic.com

Dispatch: Watch 'All We've Got' from Home, Call for Participants, Recent Writing & More 💻 Sharing my work in new ways and bringing writers and filmmakers together to build community.

Read my latest dispatch below...

These photos have been making their way into the culture for a couple of decades now. There’s so much to say about them, but I shared some thoughts @hyperallergic.com - hyperallergic.com/1033022/casa...

Was great to get to spend some time this spring biking around a little bit of Brooklyn to check out water system sites with Stanley Greenberg and to visit his studio for this conversation, now up @hyperallergic.com hyperallergic.com/1032599/phot...

Five copies, starting with the queer issue, WE WILL NOT BE ERASED in bold letters across a rainbow and trans flag, next to an issue with UPRISING in red: Remembering Freddie Gray Ten Years After the Uprising, and three more featuring color photos and text not as visible in this photo

An embarrassment of riches! Yes, thanks to @rahnealexander.com for sending these five magnificent issues of @baltimorebeat.bsky.social cross-country so I could devour them in Seattle, hooray for Baltimore's newish alt-weekly, Black-led and controlled, and free for all, to more!💖🌠

When did the US start calling itself "America," anyway? It took an imperial war for the country to settle on a nickname.

The United States hasn’t always gone by America. That name rose to its current ubiquity only in the 20th century. It did so in response to the United States becoming an empire.

Super excited to share that my documentary film about queer and trans spaces and communities is now available to stream worldwide, with captions/subtitles in 6 languages. Excited this film keeps making its way in the world a few years after it premiered. vimeo.com/ondemand/all...

The Woman Scientist and Artist Who Revolutionized the Study of Mushrooms Scientists today still make use of Mary Banning’s research, examining the same mushrooms that she located, preserved, and packed away for posterity.

Mushrooms, a scientist who wasn’t really known in her day but managed to root herself in the field, and debating metaphors… It was inevitable that I would want to write about this fascinating little exhibit now up at the NY State Museum in Albany. Up @hyperallergic.com

BY THE WAY, YOU WANT TO FOLLOW THE RESIST LIST.

Was stewing on this for a couple of weeks and decided to just write it down and share it. Just shaking my head over here…

Alice Austen’s Pioneering Lesbian Gaze Her intimate photographs of women include humor and playfulness, and speak to her closeness to her subjects.

Looking out on the world this summer with my dyke gaze…
@hyperallergic.com

Queer Artists Make Fantasy Architecture a Reality Phyllis Birkby harnessed her knowledge and lesbian feminist politics to encourage countless people to reimagine their built environments.

In which I get to write about #PhyllisBirkby #JuneJordan and some excellent contemporary art… now up @hyperallergic.com

Galleries That Play the “Responsibility” Game This commercial undertaking works hard to present itself with an institutional veneer, making claims that it “fosters a sense of shared responsibility” in the art world.

I got such an ick walking through this show, for even more reasons than I had the word count to write about, but here are the main points up @hyperallergic.com

The rise of end times fascism The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them

Worth the read…

Upcoming screening of my film in Athens, Greece. Fuck Drumpf's attempts to ban "sense of belonging" - I've now got subtitles/captions available in 6 languages. Reach out if you know of a group that might wanna screen it.

What Can Art Expose About Us? Exposure at Ulterior Gallery might not offer the quick answers our ever-shrinking attention spans demand, but much in this show is worth a second view.

New review now up @hyperallergic.com

8 Art Books on Love to Read This Valentine’s Day Letter-writing, art historical affairs, Mickalene Thomas: All About Love, and more artsy titles on love in all its forms.

Loved having an excuse to bring up the Lesbian Herstory Archives and Audre Lorde in my little contribution to this…

DEAR DAVE Magazine By Alexis Clements, February 10, 2025

Was invited by Dear Dave Magazine to write about the photo show “Hard Times are Fighting Times” by Alice Proujansky. Feels like an apropos moment to be thinking about the full complexity of the lives of leftist political activists across decades. deardavemagazine.com/deardaverevi...

Re-evaluating the Guerrilla Girls for Today’s Politics A mini-retrospective of the feminist collective raises the question: What can be learned from this work that applies to today, and is this an effective method of making change?

I’ve long admired and learned from the work of the #GuerillaGirls, but looking at the current exhibition up here in NYC, I couldn’t help but wonder how these same tactics might or might not work in the moment we find ourselves in now. Read the full review @hyperallergic.com

Feels right to be wondering how to be better with each other, not just as lovers but also friends and other kinds of intimates. We need each other, now more than ever.

She wilts. She withers. No line now, no visitors at all, besides me. She starts her long rest and transmutation, maybe to bloom again years from now. What will the world be like then?

hot pink slug of mt kaputar

some good news for a change

OK let's figure out what we can do and then do it. At LHA I always say even if you do only one thing today, that thing will have an effect. And our communities will benefit from it and it is all important. No matter how shocked I am, or we are, we can do a thing or two or three.

My guess is Saturday or Sunday to be in full bloom.

A few quick glimpses from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

The corpse flower hasn’t fully bloomed yet, but she’s starting. She’s taller and more undulating, petals are moving outward, the colors and spots are changing. Hard not to be a little bit in love.