Conversations Around Queer History

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Ho Tam, “Lychees,” 1994, oil on canvas, 72" x 60" (photo by Mark Mizgala, courtesy of Deluge Contemporary Art)

I am wandering / wondering back and forth between a pair of exhibitions at two different galleries, thinking about queer history and how Ho Tam and Ian Stone centre not-so-different conversations across three decades.

Originally exhibited in the mid-1990s, Ho Tam’s Icons Redux series was made in response to several factors: primarily wanting to foreground a gay male Asian subjectivity that was otherwise unacknowledged in North America at the time, as well as dealing with the reality of the AIDS epidemic in his community before access to effective treatment.

On view at Deluge Contemporary Art through April 26, the suite of seven large paintings combine appropriated imagery from gay porn magazines and labels from everyday items found on the artist’s kitchen counters to create a suspended reality/fantasy whirling in loosely applied copper and gold-tinted paint on canvas.

Tellingly, each of the seven different men is painted on his own, in a solo scene; the addition of the commercial product labels (Ginseng, Condensed Milk, Lycee Syrup, and so on) contribute to a fey double-speak where a knowing audience could infer the sexual innuendo. These nude men on display are objects of desire, just out of reach but with the implication of their availability through their reclining poses sold as commercial products. Though erotic, the prevailing sentiment emanating from these large paintings is one of loneliness and despair.  

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Ho Tam, “Lucky,” 1993, oil on canvas, 72" x 61.5" (photo by Mark Mizgala, courtesy of Deluge Contemporary Art)

Tam’s Icons were initially exhibited in Canada’s artist-run centres: Observatoire 4, Montreal in 1994; YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Toronto and White Water Gallery, North Bay in 1995) and are seen for the first time in 30 years courtesy of Victoria’s Deluge Contemporary Art. 

At Gallery Merrick in Victoria, Montreal-based artist Ian Stone is offering his new collection, Queer Archive, on view until April 14. If Ho Tam’s Icons are all fantasy as an escape from an unwelcoming reality, we can take Ian Stone’s Queer Archive as an activation and embrace of his reality through snapshot-like portraits in oil paint.

Stone’s cast of characters read as friends, lovers, confidants and, most importantly, tangible. We see the nuance of their body hair, the scars from their top surgery, their tattoos, and the specific look on their faces (the kind that any queer who has sifted through profile selfies on particular apps might recognize as twinged with anxiety and anticipation, but mostly look depleted.)

Stone presents a large body of work, made up of varying scales and a large triptych but his oil on paper works really stuck with me. These few works act as more than preparatory sketches for their corresponding painting on canvas (also exhibited here). They feel immediate, of course, but the paint application is looser and as a result carries with it the nuance of the artist’s relationship to the subject. 

Both Deluge Contemporary and Gallery Merrick are outliers in the small scene of Victoria, BC. As a parallel gallery, Deluge operates in a way that is hard to pinpoint. Director and curator Deborah de Boer presents simple, smart, strong work in an unfussy manner and must be applauded for her tenacity in an increasingly frustrating milieu where non-commercial spaces are left with fewer options to make ends meet. Her shows are always well-considered and would never be mistaken for a program that caters to populist whims or political pressures.

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Ian Stone, “Pink hair and pussycat selfie,” oil on canvas, 20" x 16" (courtesy of the artist and Gallery Merrick)

Similarly, Gallery Merrick has become the go-to (in this region and beyond) for contemporary art sales that are edgy while still maintaining professionalism. Founder and director Joe Bembridge minces no words about what he offers: if he doesn’t believe in the artist and their work (and by extension, if he doesn’t think he can sell it) you won’t see it on his walls. The reason Gallery Merrick has been able to sustain operations in Victoria, as well as open a satellite gallery in North Vancouver is because Bembridge knows his approach works.

Ho Tam, now in his sixties, painted Icons when he was Ian Stone’s age, and so I’m thinking of queer lineage, and how one exhibition inevitably leads to the next, where we have been and where we find ourselves now. In a moment when gender and its variations are taking centre stage (yet again thanks to our Southern neighbours), we can see the importance of visibility in Stone’s work carries a similar weight that Tam’s paintings did 30 years ago.

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Ian Stone, “The weight of community,” 2025, oil on canvas, 48" x 36" (photo courtesy of the artist and Gallery Merrick)

I’m revisiting the large triptych at Gallery Merrick, The Weight of: acceptance / tenderness / community; painted in a classical style, it features long and languid hands delicately holding plastic fruit (pears, lemons, and oranges, respectively) against a stark black background as a allegory for the queer subject. Once a ‘fruit’ as a homophobic slur was perceived as too delicate, or soft, to be taken seriously but here is given the art historical treatment. 

And, in an art world where we are always looking for the next new thing, it’s a privilege to be able to revisit something (even if it’s for the first time). ■

Ian Stone, Queer Archive, is at Gallery Merrick in Victoria, BC now through April 14, 2025.

Ho Tam, Icons Redux, is at Deluge Contemporary Art in Victoria, BC now through April 26, 2025.

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