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Tom Livo

Behind the Garage | 19″ x 22″ | Oil on canvas | 2020


Artist Statement

I grew up in the ’60’s and ’70’s, with great movies, wildly fantastic television, glamour photography and home photography. There was so much home photography, everyone had a camera! I became fascinated by the interplay between light and image.
Clowns, Universal Studio Monsters, drag queens and Hollywood glamor stars mesmerized me enough to want to digest them by drawing them. Television had witches, genies, robots, outer space doctors and vampires. I found mortal likenesses at home, and became interested in the mixing of icon and archetype with the grit of my own common experience. My paintings became autobiographical.

MR/QD Is Made Possible BY

Artists stipends made possible by Kresge Arts in Detroit

For details and more info on making a contribution to Mighty Real/Queer Detroit, please contact us at info@mrqd.org

About MR/QD

Mighty Real/Queer Detroit is an art exhibition in June 2022 devoted to 77 years (1945-2022) of Detroit LGBTQ+ art 

The exhibition presents a month-long historical examination of the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community and its longtime allies, featuring established & emerging Detroit artists, as well as artists whose careers were shortened by HIV/AIDS.

Mighty Real/Queer Detroit is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization committed to promoting positive and meaningful images of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community through artistic and intellectual means. © 2023. All Rights Reserved.