Today, Martin Wong (1946–1999) is undoubtedly best known as an unwavering chronicler of a bygone era in New York’s Loisaida neighborhood, his meticulous renderings of the material world’s seemingly inconsequential details, like brick walls or chain-wire fencing, and, of course, his adaptation of the fingerspelling gestures used in American Sign Language.

For his Forrest Bess Variations, Hawkins created a series of abstract paintings in vibrant colors that are, as the title indicates, mediations on the late Forrest Bess (1911–77), a gay painter from coastal Texas, who is known for translating his mythical visions onto canvas.

Troy Montes Michie’s Dishwater Holds No Images continues his use of textiles to tell stories of resistance, and expands his work in collage into a space-consuming format.