50 years after originally being displayed at William Way LGBT Community Center, Arleen Oshlan’s artworks return to celebrate the center’s Golden Jubilee. On Saturday, Jan. 31, folks gathered to hear the artist in conversation about her latest exhibition, “The Tangle Ive Gotten Into.”
The exhibition combines two bodies of work. One, Olshan’s “Dead Dykes and Some Gay Men” series, featuring paintings and photographs of influential people in her life who have passed on. The other, “Women Loving Women,” which features mostly nude paintings, some of which feature Olshan.
William Way art exhibition manager Jake Foster hosted the chat, in conversation with Olshan, last Friday at iMpErFeCt Gallery, its home through Feb. 21.
About 50 people attended the evening chat, which started with a viewing that was accompanied by light refreshments. During the talk, Foster interviewed Olshan. She shared stories about the friends she features in her work, as well as some tidbits about her role in Queer history in Philadelphia.
“We have a beautiful relationship, and it’s been wonderful working with her,” said Foster.
Foster and Olshan met at the 50th anniversary of Giovanni’s Room, where Olshan expressed an interest in displaying Dead Dykes and Some Gay Men at William Way. But then Foster had the idea to pair the works with Women Loving Women.
On the cusp of its 50th anniversary, in December, William Way announced it would temporarily relocate its services due to building structure issues. Needing a space to hold the show, the two chose iMPeRFeCT Gallery as the host site, as Olshan has been a longtime Mt. Airy neighbor since 1986.
Some Women Loving Women works have not been displayed publicly for years and have never been displayed with the other nude paintings. When asked why, Olshan remembered the reaction she got when she first displayed one of her paintings back in 1976.
“I showed [Lesbian Feminist Weekend] at a feminist art gathering in West Philly the year it was finished. One other artist said to me, ‘Oh, you’re a fantasy artist.’ And I said ‘No, this is Amazon reality,” said Olshan. “It’s so interesting to hear people critique art, and so you don’t feel safe when people make those kinds of comments. You don’t feel like ‘Oh, let me get this out in another show.’”
‘Lesbian Feminist Weekend’ (1976) was inspired by the event of the same name hosted by a group of lesbians from West Philly and a few students from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974. Olsen attended this event when she was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
The pictures she took there were used as references for other works like ‘Kissing in the Summer Sun’ (1978).
“That weekend, a whole bunch of us were taking photos. We were blithe spirits: We were nude and loving it,” said Olshan. “It was a very liberating time.”
According to Olshan, the organizers for the event all met through these radical lesbian meetings advertised in a lesbian magazine called Drummer. They had social gatherings like dances, but also had ‘consciousness raising’ events every night at a Women’s Center that used to be at 46th St. and Chester Ave.
“We were all helping each other, fulfilling needs, living real cheap back in those days. You didn’t necessarily need a full-time job,” said Olshan. “You had your sistas.”
Two years later, Olshan would find herself as the co-owner of Giovanni’s Room when the store’s initial location was going up for sale, first renting out of 1426 Spruce St. The storesettled at its current home on South 12th St. in 1979.
They got $1,000 loans from the community to pay back in 10 years to buy Giovanni’s Room’s current home.
“The owners [of 1426 Spruce St.] thought we were responsible for making Spruce Street gay, which is like, thank you very much,” joked Olshan, as the room filled with laughter.
The other owner, Ed Hermance, had a lot of friends in Europe, which made way for the store to start selling books internationally.
At the talk, Olshan also recounted the impact the subjects of her work had on her life. She remembers her friend Emery Turmel, featured in one of the oldest works in the exhibition, teaching her how to be a better artist.
She met Emery through her friend Gil Forman while they were living in New York. One of her longest friendships is with Forman, who is featured in a painting with his partner Zach.
She went to high school with Forman before they both moved to New York, where they both came out as lesbian and gay.
“He was my boyfriend,” said Olshan, “We hung out with our wild gang of people, and we had a great time.”
Forman unfortunately died from AIDS, but before he passed, he enlisted Olshan to create a painting of him and his partner.
Foster asked Olshan how she balances deep involvement in activism and community building with her personal life and art, and if she has any advice, sharing that it’s a question he grapples with himself.
She responded: “I was very moved by everything that did happen… now activism is going to start back up again. They always say history repeats itself snd sure enough. This is a time to do whatever we can do to maintain, inspire, and touch on people’s lives and hear people and love people. It’s a very hard time out here.”
Olshan still lives in Mt Airy and has two studios in her home, one for leather work and one for painting. Olshan is a co-founder of the Mt. Airy Arts Garage, and she also founded a lesbian social club in the area.
One of her most recent works also carries the same name as the exhibition. The Tangle I’ve Gotten Myself Into (2024) is a colorful collage that features a self-portrait of Olshan along with some of the works featured in the exhibition.
“I’m actually kind of untangled at this point,” said Olshan. “Things have been resolved, and it’s over, and it’s done, and I’ve moved on.”
Deesarine Ballayan is a Liberian-American freelance journalist from and based in Philadelphia. Her work is featured in The Philly Download, the Logan Center, CSIS, The Philadelphia Citizen, and Billy Penn @ WHYY.