Photo: Devin from no. 1 Portfolio, 2009. Paul Mpagi Sepuya (American, b. 1982). C-print photograph. Edition 9/25. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2024.R.12. © Paul Mpagi Sepuya. Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust.
The Getty Research Institute is proud to announce the exhibition $3 Bill: Evidence of Queer Lives, open June 10 – September 28, 2025.
This dynamic and timely exhibition explores queer representation through art, ephemera, videos, and archival materials dating from 1900 to the present day. Highlighting the enduring contributions of LGBTQ+ artists, intellectuals, and activists, $3 Bill provides an intimate lens through which to view histories of love, desire, resistance, and community.
“This exhibition honors the rich legacy and vibrant creativity of queer communities,” says Mary Miller, director of the Getty Research Institute. “It traces the path from early 20th-century pioneers who challenged norms around sexuality and gender, through the transformative activism of the gay liberation era and the profound impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis, to the broader, more inclusive understandings of identity we see today.”
$3 Bill brings together rare books, artists’ books, prints, and archival materials from the GRI’s extensive holdings, along with loans and items from the recently acquired Merrill C. Berman collection.
The exhibition opens with an exploration of queer art and identity in the early to mid-20th century—a time when expressions of queerness were often more discreet, yet deeply nuanced and fluid. This section features compelling images of Harlem drag balls from the 1940s and 1950s, drawn from the Johnson Publishing Company records, alongside illustrated and artists’ books, prints, drawings and photographs by notable figures such as Claude Cahun, Jean Cocteau, Jean Genet, Elisar von Kupffer, Marie Laurencin, David Hockney, and Emile Cadoo.
The second half of the exhibition focuses on the past fifty years of queer history and creative expression, from the early 1970s to the present. This period includes rich representations of diverse queer communities and highlights pivotal cultural and political moments. A dedicated section focuses on the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles, showcasing a clay model of the iconic feminist space created by Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studio in tribute to its legacy. Additional highlights include experimental two-person drawings by Judy Chicago and Cheryl Swannack (1974), public service announcements from the LA Women’s Video Center, and related ephemera.
Also featured is Entendido, the first magazine created by and for the gay community in Venezuela (1980–83), represented through portraits and documentation of local queer communities and drag queen balls. A special section is devoted to Harmony Hammond’s archive, including her groundbreaking Hair Bags (1973), alongside early sculptural experiments by Robert Mapplethorpe.
A central focus of the exhibition is the impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis on queer communities. At the heart of this section is The AIDS Chronicles, an ambitious project developed by members of the Los Angeles-based Institute of Cultural Inquiry (ICI) from 1993 to 2019. The artists collected and preserved the front pages of the New York Times—and in some years, the Los Angeles Times—every day for 26 years, The pages are completely covered with deep red, blood-looking acrylic paint, with the exception of titles / stories dealing with HIV/AIDS, presenting a haunting meditation on visibility and memory.
Surrounding this installation are materials related to HIV/AIDS activism and contemporary artistic responses, including posters created during the epidemic, silent footage by Norman Yonemoto documenting the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington DC in 1988, and works by Group Material, Gran Fury, Donald Moffett, Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, John Boskovich and Marlon Riggs, among others.
The final section is devoted to works from the mid-1990s to the present, emphasizing an increasingly inclusive and expansive understanding of gender and identity. Featured artists include Leopoldo Bloom and Shana Agid, whose works reflect on their personal transitions; partners and collaborators Nick Vaughan & Jake Margolin, who examine the effects of gentrification on queer communities; and artists like the Yonemoto brothers and Brian Tripp, who reimagine personal and art historical narratives through a queer lens.
This gallery also features powerful contributions by Catherine Opie, Naima Green, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Ron Athey, Vaginal Davis, Laura Aguilar, and Beldan Sezen.
“This exhibition has been two years in the making, and on many levels, the situation for queer and LGBTQ+ people today is much worse than when I started this project,” says Pietro Rigolo, curator of the exhibition. “All I wish and hope for $3 Bill is to offer a space for contemplation and celebration of our own unique beauty and accomplishments, and room for reflection. It is an invitation to look back, in order to understand how to move forward and thrive, as we’ve always done, even under the worst circumstances.“
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Getty will host a full slate of programming, including lectures, performances, and workshops that further explore the themes and artists represented in $3 Bill and Queer Lens: A History of Photography.
$3 Bill: Evidence of Queer Lives is curated by Pietro Rigolo, Chief Curator and Head of Collection at Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin, and supported by The Danielson Foundation.
