For nearly a century, Fire Island has existed as both refuge and fever dream—an improbable strip of land where queer art, desire, and community continually reshape one another. Fire Island Art: 100 Years, edited by Fire Island Pines Historical Society president John Dempsey, lifts the veil on the slender isle’s outsized role in queer artmaking from the 1930s to the present.
Moving decade by decade, the book changes its focus fluidly between canonical figures and those long-overlooked. Richard Avedon, Paul Cadmus, David Hockney, Peter Hujar, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Andy Warhol appear alongside lesser-known artists whose work also evolved in quiet proximity to the dunes. Archival material and newly unearthed pieces expand the narrative, reframing Fire Island as a cornerstone of queer modernism.
Contemporary artistic voices—TM Davy, Nicole Eisenman, K8 Hardy, Lyle Ashton Harris, Doron Langberg, and Salman Toor, among them—carry readers into the island’s present-day effervescence, in no small part fueled by nonprofit arts groups like BOFFO and the Fire Island Artist Residency. Essays, interviews, and primary texts (from Frank O’Hara, Wolfgang Tillmans, and others) crescendo into a chorus of perspectives generations to come will be grateful to have all in one place.
More of our favorite stories from CULTURED
The A.I. Revolution Has Come For Next-Gen Jobs. Jodi Kantor Sees a Way Forward.
72 Hours in Venice: Palazzos, Protests, and a Biennale on the Brink
Air de Paris, a Radical Stalwart of the French Gallery Scene, Is Closing
Who’s The Next Obsession? 12 European Collectors Reveal How They Discover New Talent
For His Next Act, Kareem Rahma Is Going Beyond Hot Takes
Sign up for our newsletter here to get these stories direct to your inbox.
in your life?
