TEDDY SANDOVAL AND THE BUTCH GARDENS SCHOOL OF ART

The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) presents Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art, the first museum retrospective honoring this inventive yet long-overlooked artist, who was central to queer and Chicanx artistic circles in Los Angeles and a significant figure within U.S. and international avant-garde movements.

The exhibition spans a quarter century of Sandoval’s work, highlighting his subversive yet playful explorations of gender and sexuality. Sandoval (1949–1995) frequently revisited themes of masculinity, symbolized by his signature motif of a faceless, mustached man—an image that both confronts and deconstructs male archetypes.

Sandoval’s artistic foundations were laid in the early 1970s amidst the Chicano Civil Rights and gay liberation movements. While the exhibition covers his work across various media, particular focus is given to his works on paper: prints, drawings, artist photocopies, and mail art. This focus reveals the range and wit Sandoval applied to challenge conventions within these mediums.

The exhibition’s title refers to the “Butch Gardens School of Art,” a faux institution and artistic persona Sandoval invented in homage to Butch Gardens, a gay bar in Los Angeles he frequented in the 1970s along with other Chicanx clientele. As Sandoval became increasingly involved in the mail art movement of that decade, he began using the Butch Gardens School of Art imprint to parody institutional authority with a distinct queer irreverence. This self-founded school also served as a platform for exhibitions with friends and collaborators, adding humor and irony to his practice.

In the spirit of collectivity suggested by the “school of art,” the exhibition includes works by an intergenerational grouping of twenty-five queer, Latinx, and Latin American artists who share similar graphic sensibilities, approaches to media, or thematic interests.

While some artists featured in the exhibition had direct connections to Sandoval—either as collaborators or contemporaries—many did not. This approach broadens the exhibition’s reach, proposing an alternative model for solo exhibitions by interweaving parallel histories from across the Americas. Notable examples include Antonio Lopez’s alluring fashion illustrations, Marisol’s sensual portrayals of touch, Ever Astudillo’s explorations of Cali’s urban life, and Ester Hernández’s intimate representations of Chicana lesbian erotica.

Collective Icons and Queer Reveries: Teddy Sandoval’s Influence and Resonance

Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art invites visitors to discover the work of a fascinating artist and consider how his practice was in dialogue with regional, national, and international social, political, and artistic movements. Through his exploration of masculinity within Chicanx and queer culture, Sandoval created a recurring image of a faceless male figure—a macho icon imbued with both irreverence and desire. This figure found expression in his prints, drawings, ceramics, and mail art, as well as in his illustrations for gay magazines and advertisements for a Los Angeles-based record store.

Sandoval’s artistic practice also extended into collaborative performances, such as La Historia de Frida Kahlo (1978), created with artist Gronk. In this work, Sandoval portrayed Kahlo while Gronk embodied Diego Rivera, humorously and playfully reinterpreting Kahlo’s legacy as both an icon of artistic inspiration and a gender nonconformist.

The exhibition also reflects Sandoval’s response to the AIDS crisis, as seen in works like Angel Baby (1995), produced at Self Help Graphics & Art. Here, a muscular angel wearing boxing gloves embodies resilience, reflecting the strength needed to face the challenges of the era. Later in his career, Sandoval became known for his whimsical ceramics, several of which are included in the exhibition.

Among the standout pieces is Las Locas, one of Sandoval’s few surviving large-scale paintings, which showcases the vibrancy and theatricality of his practice. This work features the artist alongside his friend Bill Hernandez and partner Paul Polubinskas, set against a background of placas (graffiti tags) that celebrate a queer chosen familia. With Sandoval and Hernandez posed and Polubinskas’s dynamic gestures evoking a club or disco scene, the piece captures a moment of joy and solidarity.

In a further exploration of queer identity in Latin America, the exhibition examines the work of Félix Ángel, whose novel Te quiero mucho, poquito, nada (I Love You, I Love You Not) was Colombia’s first explicitly homoerotic publication. The novel’s publication in 1975 caused controversy for its direct engagement with queer themes, with booksellers even returning copies due to local backlash. Ángel’s experience mirrors the reception of his homoerotic collages, which led to professional repercussions and ultimately his emigration to Washington, D.C.

Expanding the dialogue, the exhibition includes works by Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos, who edited a special Puerto Rican issue of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine in 1975, featuring actress Rita Moreno (1931). This issue celebrated Puerto Rican talent, including interviews with Iris Chacón, Chita Rivera, Eddie Palmieri, and trailblazing transgender actress Holly Woodlawn.

Other artists, such as Ever Astudillo, portray urban life and anonymous encounters in Cali, Colombia, while Marisol’s prints play with impressions of her body in ways that celebrate the ambiguity of touch and gender. Each artist contributes to the complex narrative of queer and Latinx art, echoing Sandoval’s playful spirit and his defiance of convention.

The artists represented alongside Teddy Sandoval include Yolanda Andrade (b. 1950, Villahermosa, Mexico); Félix Ángel (b. 1949, Medellín, Colombia); Ever Astudillo (b. 1948, Cali, Colombia; d. 2015, Cali, Colombia); Myrna Báez (b. 1931, Santurce, Puerto Rico; d. 2018, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Felipe Baeza (b. 1987, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico); Álvaro Barrios (b. 1945, Cartagena, Colombia); Sérgio Valle Duarte (b. 1954, São Paulo); Gronk (b. 1954, Los Angeles); Ester Hernández (b. 1944, Dinuba, CA); Hudinilson Jr. (b. 1957, São Paulo; d. 2013, São Paulo); Antonio Lopez (b. 1943, Utuado, Puerto Rico, d. 1987, Los Angeles) and Juan Ramos (b. 1942, Caguas, Puerto Rico; d. 1995, New York); Marcos López (b. 1958,  Santa Fé, Argentina) and RES (b. 1957, Córdoba, Argentina) with Liliana Maresca (b. 1951, Avellaneda, Argentina; d. 1994, Buenos Aires) and Adriana Miranda (b. 1969, San Juan, Argentina); Marisol (b. 1930, Paris, France; d. 2016, New York); María Martínez-Cañas (b. 1960, La Habana, Cuba); Agustín Martínez Castro (b. 1950, Veracruz, Mexico; d. 1992, Acapulco, Mexico); Marta Minujín (b. 1943, Buenos Aires); Troy Montes Michie (b. 1985, El Paso, TX); Adolfo Patiño (b. 1954, Mexico City; d. 2005, Mexico City); Claudio Perna (b. 1938, Milan, Italy; d. 1997, Holguín, Cuba); Moises Salazar Tlatenchi (b. 1996, Chicago); Ana Segovia (b. 1991, Mexico City); Ginger Brooks Takahashi (b. 1977, Huntington, WV); Joey Terrill (b. 1955, Los Angeles); Alex Vallauri (b. 1949, Asmara, Ethiopia; d. 1987, São Paulo); and Martin Wong (b. 1946, Portland, OR; d. 1999, San Francisco).

Curated by C. Ondine Chavoya and David Evans Frantz, Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art is a traveling exhibition produced by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York, in collaboration with the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College and WCMA. A scholarly catalog, co-published by ICI, Inventory Press, and these institutions, accompanies the exhibition, deepening engagement with Sandoval’s multifaceted legacy.

Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art will be on view at the Williams College Museum of Art through December 22, 2024.