Opening on Friday, October 4, 2024, from 6 to 9 pm

Artist’s talk at 5:30 pm

Lycoming College Art Gallery

25 West Fourth Street

Williamsport, PA 17701

Grab your sunglasses and prepare to be dazzled at the opening of Paula Gately Tillman’s survey show on October 4, 2024, at the Lycoming College Art Gallery in the romantic setting of Williamsport, PA.

Feast your eyes on a rarely seen video of RuPaul’s first publicity shoot in his then apartment in Atlanta, Georgia, 1986.  Delight in the digital color photographs taken at the Bowery Electric, New York City, in March 2024 of the high priestesses of punk Tish and Snooky Bellomo, founders of the Manic Panic hair dye line, and backing singers for Blondie as well as RuPaul on his RuPaul is Star Booty soundtrack. Drink in the portraits of New York and Atlanta LGBTQ+ punk musicians and fashion divas captured in the 1980s and 1990s, featured in Fringe, the artist’s award-winning book.

Then move on to interior black and white photographs captured in the Caʹ Rezzonico Museum of 18th Century Venice in 2006, Chester River series on Maryland’s Eastern shore from the 1990s, dreamy landscapes shot in black and white 35 mm film in Liechtenstein between the years 2008 and 2012, which were produced later as digital blue pigment prints, and black and white gelatin silver prints from her Women in the Arts series, Baltimore 2004.

Seldom or never-shown-before gelatin sliver prints from the artist’s collection will be exhibited along with pigment prints, including a portrait of Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn, and photogravures, as well as new digital color portraits and landscapes.

From Aspen through New York City, Atlanta, and Baltimore to foreign locales, the artist’s eye roved across found studios from formal interior shots to the gritty landscapes in city backyards and streets as well as the natural settings of shorelines.

Gately Tillman’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented in numerous public and private collections, including most recently the CLAMP gallery in New York City and CLAMP online; the Permanent Collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA); E. Kirkbride Miller Art Research Library at the BMA; Decker Library at Maryland Institute College of Art; Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Sheriden Libraries, at Johns Hopkins University; Fales Library at New York University; and the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University. Gately Tillman’s Fringe: New York ◊ Atlanta ◊ 1984–1997, My Love is a Thread Tied to You, as well as published catalogs from her recent exhibitions, are also featured in these collections.

Lycoming College is thrilled to show the photographs of Paula Gately Tillman. Her perspective is both poignant and powerful. She tends to see things ahead of her time; consequently, her work carries with it a lasting relevance to future generations. Our students will undoubtedly benefit from viewing her creative work. —Seth Goodman, Associate Professor of Art, Lycoming College