Exhibit Opening | Living Open: Art and Literature from Key West’s LGBTQ+ Renaissance

Exhibit Opening Living Open: Art and Literature from Key West’s LGBTQ+ Renaissance
June 4 | 5pm – 8pm

Join us for the opening night of Living Open: Art and Literature from Key West’s LGBTQ+ Renaissance, an exhibition celebrating the extraordinary artistic and cultural contributions of Key West’s LGBTQ+ community.

For generations, Key West has offered artists a rare sense of freedom—the freedom to live authentically, create without restraint, and build community. Living Open explores the remarkable creative legacy that emerged from this spirit of openness, bringing together works by artists including Van Eno, Craig Biondi, Ron Clemons, John Kiraly, Robert Franke, Richard Matson, and others.

From luminous tropical landscapes and still lifes to deeply personal explorations of identity, memory, and beauty, the exhibition reveals the diversity of artistic voices that helped define Key West’s visual identity. These artists were inspired not only by the island’s distinctive light and natural beauty, but by the sense of belonging and possibility they found within its community.

Beginning in the 1970s, Key West became an important refuge for LGBTQ+ people seeking acceptance during an era of widespread discrimination. Artists, writers, musicians, and entrepreneurs helped transform the island’s neighborhoods and cultural landscape, establishing galleries and businesses, restoring historic properties, and creating a community whose influence continues to shape Key West today.

Living Open also reflects on the profound impact of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, a period marked by devastating loss as well as extraordinary compassion, activism, and resilience. The works gathered here serve not only as artistic achievements, but as lasting reminders of the lives, friendships, struggles, and creative energy of a community that helped make Key West what it is today.