Pop Through a Queer Lens

Pop Through a Queer Lens has been co-produced by members of Wolverhampton’s LGBTQIA+ community and presents new ways of understanding some of the Gallery’s best loved artworks.

Community members explored the Pop Art and post-war collections and responded to selected artworks from a Queer perspective. The collaborative display includes an array of art forms from collage and print to sculpture and reliefs and also features their individual responses and reflections. Some of the written and visual responses creatively draw on participants’ lived experiences, whilst others are based on research and personal interests.

Pop Through a Queer Lens aims to uncover the many untold LGBTQIA+ connections and Queer imagery within the Pop Art collection, and to foreground Queer voices through the perspectives of our panel. Their personal engagement with the artworks demonstrates that there is no one definitive Queer experience. We invite you to reflect on your own experiences of gender and sexuality in response to the artworks and responses presented.

The display is the first step in a wider project to enhance Queer visibility across the Gallery and its collections, and to work with the community to ensure that our spaces are welcoming and inclusive. Historically, the term ‘Queer’ has had many different meanings. Here, we use Queer as a positive affirmation following the community’s reclamation of the word to represent sexual and gender minorities.