Liquid Gender: What is Truth? season

Liquid Gender explores the relationship between identity and culture as artists draw upon pre-colonial traditions to convey fluid, liberated and celebratory approaches to gender expression and identity.

Combining cultural traditions to construct their own futures, the exhibition features the work of Leilah Babirye, Martine Gutierrez, Rashaad Newsome, Laryssa Machada and Antônio Vital Neto Pankararu.

Internationally celebrated artist Rashaad Newsome will make new holographic work titled In the Absence of Evidence, We Create Stories. Dialogues between objects in the Sainsbury Centre collection will be visualised, with sculptures from Africa transforming into cyborgs to speak about their past, present and future.

Shown in full in the UK for the first time, Martine Gutierrez’s Demons series shows the artist transform herself into Aztec, Maya and Yorùbá deities – selected for their androgynous characteristics.

Laryssa Machada’s photographs are overlaid with Antônio Vital Neto’s Pankararu Indigenous designs, referencing the fluidity of visibility. Origem explores queer Indigenous identities in Brazil.

When Leilah Babirye sought asylum in the US after being publicly outed in her native Uganda, she saw drag queens for the first time, which inspired a series of vibrant works on paper.

The exhibition will feature loans as well as new acquisitions to the Sainsbury Centre collection, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to representation.

This exhibition is part of the 2024 What Is Truth? Season