Mariette Pathy Allen: Breaking Boundaries
Curated by Jesse Egner and Orestes Gonzalez
Organized by Rebecca Fasman
WEAM (World Erotic Art Museum), Miami, Florida
December 2, 2024 - July 2025
We are proud to present an extraordinary retrospective of the groundbreaking work of photographer Mariette Pathy Allen, whose ongoing practice over the last five decades has captured the love, beauty, intimacy, joy, and heartache of transgender and gender-expansive communities across the globe. This exhibition offers a powerful look into the evolution of attitudes toward transgender, non-binary, gender-fluid, and gender non-conforming individuals, seen through the lens of an artist who has dedicated her career to the humane and dignified portrayal of these communities.
Mariette Pathy Allen’s photographic journey with gender diversity began in 1978, with images of this often underrepresented community defying the sensationalism often seen in media coverage at the time. Her intimate portraits of individuals, couples, and families depicted as relatable people helped reshape the then common perceptions of gender-variant individuals as freaks or deviants. Allen’s disarming modus operandi throughout her career has been to extend invitations to countless individuals to be themselves in front of her camera. In her photographs, Allen and her subjects bear witness to the profound truths of gender-nonconformity; truths she beheld since the first time she took a photograph of a transgender person in 1978 and felt she was “not looking at a man or a woman, but the essence of a human being.”
This comprehensive exhibition traces the progression of Allen’s career, spanning five decades of work in support of transgender visibility and dignity. Her photographs continue to serve as both artistic treasures and historical documents of a community that has been continuously marginalized, yet thrives with strength and perseverance—especially during our current political climate that is once again changing, in ways that attempt to diminish the validity of transgender individuals and threaten their safety.
This exhibition travels to WEAM in Miami, a museum well-known and beloved for their beautiful and provocative exhibitions. Both Kinsey and WEAM are thrilled to be able to present these timely and impactful works at a time when the rights of LGBTQIA+ people are under attack.
