Open Eye Gallery, 19 Mann Island, Liverpool, L3 1BP • September 15 – November 25, 2012

Mark Morrisroe: Late Photograms, at Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery. Homotopia Festival 2012.

“At art school in Boston, Morrisroe was a prize-winning student as well as a drag performer and founder of the underground magazine Dirt. His photographic work continued and developed a punk aesthetic.”

Walker Art Gallery, William Brown Street Liverpool, L3 8EL • November 11, 2012

David Hoyle’s Archetype, at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery. Homotopia Festival 2012.

“We were led by Hoyle into different rooms, bejeweled with bright pre-Raphaelite canvases, Victorian history paintings, Rembrandt portraits and medieval masterpieces, to be met with a performer in each”

[rating=4]
US: 101 min • Alarum Pictures, Parts and Labor, Tiny Dancer Films • November 2, 2012

Michael Langan finds this exploration of damage and addiction to be intelligent, difficult, grown-up, and thoughtful.

“Like Weekend and I Want Your Love, Keep the Lights On has a verité feel to it, though the production values are high – this feels like quality film-making without the commercialised glossiness of, say, A Single Man.”

Michael Werner Gallery, 22 Upper Brook St, London, W1K 7PZ • September 27 – December 22, 2012

An exhibition of pictures by Peter Doig confirms his position as one of the most significant painters working today.

“Water and boats often feature in his landscapes, and they do here, with the human figure sometimes floating on or above water. The people are ghostly and ethereal, creating an air of mystery, of things just happened, or about to happen.”

The Cutting Edge of Queer Arts.

The ninth Homotopia Festival runs from 30 October to 30 November 2012. Michael Langan talks to Artistic Director Gary Everett about this innovative queer arts programme.

“So many gay festivals around the UK feel bland, commodified and corporate and seem to have lost their way. I hope through our message of art and social justice we connect with queer and LGBT audiences as well as the wider community.”

Love Me As I Am.

Michael Langan talks to Francois Lubbe about Love Me As I Am, a book of storytelling about gay men’s lives, and the theatre project, Gay Utopia, that accompanies it.

“I think right now is a pivotal moment in the history of the gay movement because people are stepping up and telling their stories and it’s not just about their accomplishments.”

Photographing Queer Artists.

Michael Langan talks to writer and photographer Justin David about his series Night Work, which features queer artists in the alternative after-hours world of night …

“I’ve always felt more welcome in a queer setting, amongst these sort of characters, as opposed to a gay mainstream.”

A Well-Endowed Library.

Naked Boys Reading LDN is the perfect intimate live event: a nude literary salon featuring in-the-buff readings.

Matt Fennemore talks David Wojnarowic.

Michael Langan talks to performance artist Matt Fennemore about the queer arts pioneer David Wojnarowicz, whose work has inspired his new piece, You Killed Me First!

“Film-maker, performer, photographer, iconoclast, AIDS campaigner and all-round agent provocateur, Wojnarowicz belonged to an age when to be gay, queer, or whatever you want to call it, was to be fighting a constant battle against prejudice, bigotry and, as a matter of life and death, striving for human rights.”

[rating=4]
Belgium: 96 min • Indeed Films • DVD • August 6, 2012

Polari‘s reviewer Michael Langan is charmed by the coming-of-age story North Sea Texas, and impressed by the assuredness of its young lead, Jelle Florizoone.

“North Sea Texas emphasizes the universality of love amidst the specificities of gay experience. Many of the same longings, desires, anxieties and disappointments that you might find in any teen-romance movie are explored here, while not compromising on depictions of gay teenage sexuality.”