Back to All Events

Millennial Pink


  • San Diego Art Institute 1439 El Prado San Diego, CA, 92101 United States (map)

SDAI is pleased to announce the opening of Millennial Pink on July 29, 2017. The opening reception will take place at San Diego Art Institute, 1439 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101 from 6pm-8pm. The exhibition will run through September 3rd. 

Millennial Pink is an exhibition dedicated to the evolution of queer aesthetics, with an emphasis on imagery that is both intrinsically beautiful, natural, fluid, and celebratory. As the millennial generation readily embraces the concept of non-binary gender identity and sexual fluidity, the aesthetic tropes of gendered colors, materials, and processes in art are slowly being dismantled and/or reclaimed as gender-neutral practices. 

While the queer aesthetics of the 1980's served as a political comment on the importance of LGBTQ visibility in the wake of the AIDS crisis, emerging artists of today have embraced social media to share imagery reflecting a vision of the future that exalts the ethereal beauty and/or raw and honest depictions of queerness. Bodies, nature, the physical embrace of lovers, and the overwhelming presence of pink in this survey of artists' work contributes to a visual language that describes the pride, vulnerability, and adoration of living openly as members of our LGBTQIA+ community. 

The exhibition is curated by Lissa Corona and Marina Grize, Interim Executive Director and Creative Director (respectively) of SDAI. 

Upcoming Millennial Pink Events
August 3, Documentary - Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution
August 11, Dance Party - Booty Bassment
August 18, Storytelling - So Say We All

Millennial Pink Artists include
Alexia Arani, Debra Barrera, Erica Cho, Zackary Drucker, Kevin Freligh, Carlitos Galvan, Marina Grize, Jesi Gutierrez, Riain Hager, Billy Hawkins, Rizzhel Mae Javier, Yony Leyser, Mario Mesquita, Mauricio Muñoz, Jaime Ramos, Vabianna Santos, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Orlando Soria, Patrick Staff, Wendy Stumman, Ivette Vallejo, Dylan Wilde, and Joe Yorty.

Space 1439 Installation
Luisa Martínez, "Piñata Puñeta (Cuando Cuir, Cuando Quien)"

About (Selected Works)
Erica Cho - "Golden Golden"
Erica Cho is a bi-coastal visual artist, animator, and filmmaker. She has taught visual art and media studies at Scripps College, Bryn Mawr College, Swarthmore College and currently teaches at University of California at San Diego. Cho has acted as a film curator for the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival since 2011, and organized and founded the first Tri-Co Film Festival in 2012. She is also a recipient of the Creative Capital Moving Image Award.

Zackary Drucker -  "At Least You Know You Exist"
Zackary Drucker is an independent artist, cultural producer, and trans woman who breaks down the way we think about gender, sexuality, and seeing. She has performed and exhibited her work internationally in museums, galleries, and film festivals including the Whitney Biennial 2014, MoMA PS1, Hammer Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, MCA San Diego, and SF MoMA, among others. Drucker is an Emmy-nominated Producer for the docu-series This Is Me, as well as a Producer on Golden Globe and Emmy-winning Transparent.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya - "Figure, Grounds & Studies"
Paul Mpagi Sepuya is an American photographer and artist, living and working in Los Angeles and New York City. Predominantly NY-based through 2014, he is currently visiting faculty at CalArts, School of Art, Program in Photography and Media.

Patrick Staff - "Weed Killer"
Patrick Staff is an interdisciplinary artist who works with film, installation, dance and performance to investigate dissent, labour and the queer body. Through collaborative projects Staff explores the ways that stories of counter-cultures and radical activity have been told and retold.


This exhibition is made possible, in part, by the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation. Support from Wonderspaces, Gym Standard, and #1 Fifth Avenue. 

Photo by Carlitos Galvan

Earlier Event: July 18
Feel the Noise
Later Event: September 17
BC to BC