The Big Gay Art Show 2025 – Exhibition and Sale
June 6 @ 10:00 am - June 29 @ 5:00 pm
The Big Gay Art Show
The Big Gay Art Show — a juried art show that exhibits and sells artwork in support of the LGBTQ+ community and allies.
This much anticipated and well attended exhibition is open to all artists in any medium and of any level. In 2012, the Big Gay Art Show was conceptualized by a small group – some connected to SAC and others in the Sedona Pride organization. The event began as an effort to offer the LGBTQ+ community a voice in the local art scene. Since that first show, Sedona Arts Center has welcomed hundreds of emerging and professional artists to Sedona to share their work. The event provides a positive venue to for the LGBTQ+ community and its allies to show their work. In the past, Sedona Arts Center hosted and promoted this event, but has now taken on the special event at the request of Sedona Pride.
“We are incredibly excited about the Big Gay Art Show. This is first BGAS since the pandemic and since we took over the event from Sedona Pride. Work in the show is coming from all over the US – and I believe this is going to be a very impactful and stunning exhibit. It is definitely not to be missed!” – Julie Richard, CEO, Sedona Arts Center.
Title: Soiled Pretty
Artist: Sharon Gilham
Medium: Mixed media collage (beeswax, gelli print, vintage ephemera) on birch board
Dimensions: 12 x 12 inches
Year: 2025
Statement:
Soiled Pretty is a 12x12 mixed media collage layered with beeswax, gelli prints, old maps, and vintage paper—highlighting a dictionary page where obey and queer share space. A photograph of two women and a handwritten line—“I read your silence like braille pressed into my pulsing flesh”—anchor the piece.
This work reflects on hidden queer love, especially between women in the Victorian era, and how that silence still echoes today. It’s about intimacy kept quiet, stories that weren’t safe to tell, and the power in naming what was once considered shameful.
