The Black face in the photograph looks out at the viewer with a forthrightness and beauty.
Because Qing Imzadi identifies as a Black trans/gender non-conforming artist, they see the world from a perspective many can’t. Imzadi believes it’s essential to document their experiences and existence, particularly during the current political climate.
“Even in 2025, discrimination remains a tangible reality, and the queer community continues to face significant challenges,” Imzadi says. “At a time when the art of drag and burlesque is under attack across the country, Black drag kings like myself are often overlooked, especially here in Richmond.”
The photograph depicts Imzadi’s drag persona, created in memory of Stormy Delarverie, an iconic drag king and show emcee of the 1950s and ’60s who played a pivotal role in the Stonewall rebellion. “I’m passionate about connecting the lines of the past and future,” Imzadi says. “I understand the privilege I hold to be able to participate in the arts, and the responsibility I have to lift the voices of the past, as well as those today without the ability to do the same.”
Imzadi’s photograph is one of 49 works in Artspace Gallery’s new exhibition, “Glamour is Resistance,” timed to coincide with Pride Month. The title was chosen to underscore the premise that the conscious act of embodying and celebrating glamour within the queer experience is a powerful form of defiance. Exhibition committee chairman Michael A. Pierce has been with Artspace for 20 years and has helped focus the gallery’s vision to include myriad voices. “If we’re going to talk diversity,” he says. “We need to get out of the way and let these artists have their say.”
A national call for entries resulted in 175 submissions—paintings, sculpture, textiles, collage and photography—from places as widespread as Hawaii, Kentucky, D.C., Louisiana, New Jersey and even Canada. “In America today, being who you are and not hiding it has become a form of resistance,” Pierce says. “Not everyone can feel safe being who they are anymore.”
He thinks attendees will be surprised at how much beauty there is in the show. “It’s like a Baroque church, full of flowers, color and form,” he says. “Yes, folks are different, but we’re all the same. I want people to appreciate the beauty here.”
John Paradiso’s work is an ongoing exploration of his gay male identity. At times, his work is a statement about his experiences navigating a sex–positive lifestyle among a prevalence of sex-negative messages. At other times, it’s his way of honoring his feminine side while striving to be more masculine. “In my work, I try to represent a queer fluid masculinity,” Paradiso says. “For me the work is a celebration of masculinity that’s informed by the feminine.”
A member of the modern leather community, Paradiso’s “Leather, Garters, and Heels” celebrates his friend Timo, who was Sydney’s Mr. Leather 2024, and the unapologetic way he moves through the world. Because he thinks there is so much hate in the world, Paradiso tried to make a collage that illustrated the idea of love as a fetish. “I used pansy imagery for its historical significance as a disparaging term for a man or boy who was considered either effeminate or homosexual,” he says. “The irony is that the pansy is a very hardy flower, so a term once meant to be ugly and hurtful remains resistant and pretty.”
“Glamour is Resistance” was curated by Michael-Birch Pierce, a fiber artist, fashion designer and assistant professor of fashion design and merchandising at VCU. In trying to determine which of the 175 submissions would be in the exhibit, M-B Pierce gravitated to works that celebrated queerness or made a political statement by taking a stand against oppression. “I let the works speak to me and dictate what the narrative would be,” Pierce says. “I figured out how it all connected and what made a good flow.”
They clarify that glamour isn’t necessarily rhinestones, sequins and feather boas, but rather the identities that members of the LGBTQ+ population must create for themselves. “We construct them in hopes of differentiating ourselves from hetero culture, to code-switch, and to connect with members of our own culture,” Pierce continues. “We use our ability to build our identities as an act of self-preservation. It’s about what face will I put on to deal with the world today.”
Mixed-media artist Justice Dwight agrees that glamour as resistance is about being seen and not erased, essentially reclaiming joy in the face of uncertainty. They see an exhibit like this as particularly important now because it’s a reminder of everything that the LGBTQ+ community has done and all they still have left to do. “My personal glamour has become a shield of protection, warding off unwanted energy and openly creating space for energy that is for me,” Dwight says. “If my armor offends you, then that’s cool, because it was never for your gaze.”
While the exhibition was conceived of and planned last fall, it opens during a noticeably different cultural moment. Michael-Birch Pierce sees the rights and dignity of trans people as being under attack with the administration and Republican party pushing to invalidate trans people.
“They’re trying to eradicate a population and eventually, they’ll come for the rest of the community,” Pierce says. “It’s that saying about ‘your fight is my fight and my fight is your fight.’ It’s really important to protect everyone’s rights. ‘Glamour is Resistance’ shows the many stories that need to be told.”
“Glamour is Resistance,” opens on Friday, May 23 from 6-8 p.m. at Artspace Gallery, 2833-A Hathaway Road, artspacegallery.org.
