Poppers the Pony: Poppers’s Human Heroes

Poppers’s Human Heroes is a virtual exhibition of ten portraits by Dorian Katz presented by Black & White Projects’ s Curatorial Apprentice Program on the Kunsmatrix platform. Katz draws under the name of her character Poppers the Pony. Poppers’s and Katz’s heroes are writers, sex educators, sex workers and artists. These artworks were commissioned for various projects during the last 15 years. We are delighted to bring them together for the first time.

The exhibition contains nine illustrations and a large painting. The illustrations, all except one, are black and white and drawn with archival markers and pencil on paper. The black and white drawings first appeared in historically themed LGBTQ+ coloring books. The final illustration wraps its subject in radiant red, purple, and teal. In a full show of color, the large painting takes its composition from a Robert Mapplethorpe photo of the same subject who Katz surrounds with the naughty anthropomorphic characters found in her art as well as materials from the subject’s archive in the Center for Sex & Culture collection now at Harvard University.

Curator Jane Sheehan states “Dorian’s masterful works have a piercing depth. Many contain quotes from the subjects they depict, evoking a louder presence, and shining a vibrant spotlight on the heroes’ powerfully beautiful lives.”

Katz hopes to convey a sense of each hero’s relevance for her and to pique the viewer’s interest in them. Dorian compounds each portrait with delicately lined detail in the clothing and her cartoony versions of objects from the lives of each person. Through this series, Dorian Katz shares just a few heroes. There is no end to her list.

This virtual exhibition is curated by Jane Sheehan as part of BWP’s inaugural Curatorial Apprenticeship Program. The annual Curatorial Apprenticeship is a new program developed to create opportunities for arts workers to express their creativity, deepen their practice and gain experience, build pipelines and mentorship for emergent curators and cultural producers to progress their careers; and foster new visions in curatorial practice.

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