bird circuit (n.): a network of historic bar venues with bird-inspired names like The Swan, The Golden Pheasant, The Yellow Cockatoo, and The Blue Parrot, which offered covert queer communal spaces at a time it was considered illegal.

Bird Circuit explores themes of personal expression and identity through the rich symbolism of birds, viewed through a queer-coded lens. In his largest solo exhibition to date, artist Vojislav Radovanović, draws inspiration from a little-known piece of LGBTQ+ history: a series of mid-20th-century bars in cities like New York and Los Angeles, where venues with avian names covertly signaled them as queer gathering spaces at a time when self-expression was criminalized. The artist’s intuitive painting process gives rise to a kaleidoscopic world of richly layered paintings, sculptures, installations, and multichannel video –evoking desires for connection, visibility, safety, and survival. As queer lives face renewed threats of suppression and cultural erasure, Radovanović’s work affirms the enduring importance of sanctuary–both physical and symbolic–and the vital role of art as therapeutic expression, resistance, and resilience.

Curated by Jason Jenn, Bird Circuit opens with a reception at Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery on Saturday, May 31 from 2-5pm.

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