Past Event
Ted Carey: Queer as Folk
MARKS FAMILY GALLERY NORTH/TITO SPIGA EXHIBITION SPACE
Born and raised in Chester, Pennsylvania, Edward “Ted” Fawcett Carey (1932–1985) moved to New York in 1955. There he pursued a career in graphic design, forged a close friendship with Andy Warhol, and later developed a distinctive mode of painting informed by his keen interest in American folk art. While living between New York and East Hampton in the 1970s and 1980s, Carey produced a small yet compelling body of work that mimics aspects of vernacular painting, chronicles his life and relationships, and pictures facets of queer culture. Sharply observed and highly detailed, Carey’s faux-naïf paintings depict places he frequented and people he admired. Several canvases document his favorite haunts in New York and his home in East Hampton. Other paintings pay tribute to the creative lives of specific gay men.
Indebted to the foresight and generosity of Carey’s longtime partner, this exhibition draws from the Tito Spiga Bequest to Guild Hall. It surveys Ted Carey’s art for the first time since 1985, when an East Hampton gallery mounted a memorial show of his paintings in the days following his death from AIDS.
This exhibition is organized by guest curator Matthew Nichols, PhD.
“Until now, Ted Carey has been something of an art historical footnote due to his friendship and association with Andy Warhol. The paintings he produced in the last decade of his life are both fastidious and fascinating. They are not widely known and came to my attention after Guild Hall fully digitized its permanent collection. I am glad for this opportunity to work with Guild Hall, to help remedy Ted Carey’s obscurity, and to share his creative achievement with a larger audience.”
Two public programs will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition, including a talk by curator Matthew Nichols on June 2 at 2 PM and a conversation between Nichols and artist Anne Buckwalter on June 23 at 2 PM.
Galleries are open Friday to Monday, 12-5 PM. Museum admission is always free.