Lord Frederick: Memory of Sight
On View: June 1 - July 29, 2023
EXTENDED through September 2nd, 2023
Opening Reception: June 1, 2023 5:30-7:30pm
Artist Talk: July 6, 2023 6pm
At the Tenderloin Museum
398 Eddy St. SF, CA 94102
Free!
The first solo exhibition by the Black, blind, gay, sexy artist Lord Frederick is a journey of passion, fashion, cartoons & illustrations. See what he remembers seeing; see what he sees now.
The Tenderloin Museum is proud to present Memory of Sight, the first solo exhibition by the “Black, blind, gay, sexy artist of San Francisco” Lord Frederick that surveys his interdisciplinary practice across sculpture, fashion, illustration, and poetry. A native New Yorker and resident of the Tenderloin for 10 years, Lord Frederick went totally blind in 1999; in the years since, he has overcome immense struggles and obstacles to develop a robust practice of making and to actualize his distinctive aesthetic vision.
A leather man, a doll enthusiast, and a spiritualist, Lord Frederick lives his personal style unabashedly and completely. He can often be seen navigating the chaotic streets of the TL dudded out in chaps and sporting a wig of silvery white. Imagination and nostalgia animate his present and his capacity to thread joy, exuberance, and whimsy into his trademark handmade dolls.
With Memory of Sight, Lord Frederick invites attendees to “see what he remembers seeing, and to see what he sees now.” In a world increasingly dominated by visual culture, Lord Frederick upends the primacy of the visual, channeling his sensory understanding of the world to subvert commonly held assumptions about identity, race, and ability. Smurfs and Munsters from his childhood in front of the TV serve as subjects for hand-hewn yet recognizable figurines. Strapping pirates and dressy butlers leap out of his mind’s eye as fabulously styled dolls. One medium bleeds into another, the 2 dimensional becomes 3D, and the innocence of childhood mingles with flights of fantasy, responding to the harsh realities of big city living for a totally blind, Black, gay man.
A gallery-wide, site-specific illustration of the New York City skyline provides the backdrop for Lord Frederick’s colorful cadre; however, it’s the NYC from his youth, his beloved hometown as he remembers it, replete with the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Although his love for New York runs deep, Lord Frederick has been living and making community in and around the Tenderloin for the past decade. He honed his craft at the Hospitality House Community Arts Program for several years, showed work at SFPL Talking Books and Braille Center, and more recently has become an integral part of Skywatchers, an arts and performance community comprised primarily of Tenderloin & SOMA residents who practice storytelling, movement, music, and ritual to transcendent effect.
Outside of his artistic practice, Lord Frederick is a dedicated runner who has completed 12 marathons and is signed up for the 2023 NYC Marathon. He’s also an advocate for the totally blind, and is working towards the foundation of an organization that aims to serve that community that he is called “Blind People Can Do.” For more information or to get a taste of Lord Frederick’s world, follow him on his Tik Tok, Instagram, or Twitter.
Memory of Sight opens on June 1st, 2023 with an opening reception in conjunction with the monthly SF First Thursday Art Walk in the Tenderloin & Lower Polk neighborhoods; the artist will return on the first Thursday in July for an artist talk. A special thanks to the Skywatchers community–in particular Noel Castro & Dennis McCauley–who were instrumental in preparing some of Lord Frederick’s work for exhibition, and to James Q. Chan who shared video of a documentary-in-progress about Lord Frederick for the show.