50 States: Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, and Wyoming

February 12, 2019 - June 29, 2019

Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin explore the connections between LGBTQIA+ histories and contemporary queer experiences in the United States. 50 States is an ongoing series of installations made in response to little-known LGBTQIA+ histories from each state predating the 1969 Stonewall riot that launched the modern LGBTQIA+ rights movement. This multi-decade endeavor engages critically with perceptions of history and community in a time where our culture’s views of gender and sexuality progress at an astonishing pace while provoking deeply troubling social and legislative backlashes. Their research draws from recent groundbreaking academic work, the artists’ archival research and significant time spent learning from and collaborating with local LGBTQIA+ community members.

In addition to their installations, the two artists create intricately hand-cut works on paper in which they layer LGBTQIA+ imagery over found road maps then selectively cut away the layered “land” to reveal a delicate system of roads and waterways beneath.  Inspired by anatomical drawings of the human vascular system, the cut maps assert that the iconography of the LGBTQIA+ community has a deep, corporeal connection to the nation’s geographies.