Lovers, Somehow - solo exhibition on view through July 24th in Zurich

My solo exhibition Lovers, Somehow is now on view at Anggrek Agency in Zurich and runs through July 24th. I’m showing a selection of new and recent photographic works. More information below and images from the preview evening and vernissage. Download list of available works here.

Stuart Sandford: Lovers, Somehow
Vernissage, Friday 5 June 2026, 18:00 - 21:00
Turbinenstrasse 46, 8005 Zurich
5 June - 24 July 2026

Following the vernissage, viewing by appointment only

Anggrek Agency is pleased to present Lovers, Somehow, the second solo exhibition by British artist Stuart Sandford.

Sandford (b. 1978) is a prominent voice in contemporary art and queer image-making, known for his intimate photographic practice and sculptural works spanning over two decades. Working between London, Mexico, and Los Angeles, his work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Tom of Finland Foundation and the Bob Mizer Museum, and in collaboration with cultural and commercial platforms such as Diesel. His practice continues to navigate visibility, desire, and censorship in the digital age.

Lovers, Somehow extends the narrative introduced in Pleasure Boy (2024), the inaugural exhibition of Anggrek Agency. While the earlier presentation focused on Polaroid collages produced during the COVID lockdown in Mexico and Los Angeles, the current exhibition brings together works from Sandford’s recent travels across Europe and an artist residency in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, earlier this year.

Across Polaroids, Polaroid collages, and a new diptych, Sandford constructs a diaristic visual language in which moments of intimacy presented through fragmentation and juxtaposition. Echoing the photographic traditions of Nan Goldin and Wolfgang Tillmans, the works collapse distinctions between portrait and still life, allowing bodies and objects to carry equal emotional weight. Desire is not fixed in a single subject, but dissolved and circulated across images, encounters, and memories. 

AVANT GARDENER - currently on view in Belfast at The Naughton Gallery

AVANT GARDENER

16.04.26 - 31.05.26

Tara Booth / Laura Callaghan / Adham Faramawy / Eliott Gamer / Sam Fred Hinton / Laura Kelly / Aidan Koch / Patrick Kyle / Luís Lázaro Matos / Sinéad O’Neill-Nicholl / Stuart Sandford / Sabīne Šnē / Oisín Tozer / Yūji Yokoyama

Polaroid Collages - LA/CDMX (2022) installation view at the Naughton Gallery

Anonymous Landscapes (2007-TBA) installation view at the Naughton Gallery

AVANT GARDENER examines how contemporary artists are tending to new growth – cultivating visions of connection, care, and resistance. Bringing together local and international practitioners, the exhibition explores the intersections of art, activism, and sustainability, asking how we continue to find meaning, pleasure, and purpose in our relationship with the living world.

From lush landscapes to post-apocalyptic dreamscapes, the works consider how the human body and experience are shaped by their surroundings – at once embedded within them and set apart. Through pop cultural references, mythological allusions, and cinematic echoes, the exhibition invites us to look anew at the environments we inhabit, shape, and sometimes destroy.

In an age defined by climate anxiety and ecological awakening, gardens, parks, and landscapes emerge as terrains of care and control, conflict and connection. These spaces can be sites of refuge and tension, intimacy and exclusion, growth and erasure, where questions of belonging, identity, and responsibility come into focus. Spanning comics, illustration, moving image, installation, photography, and sculpture, the works ask what it means to belong – and who or what is allowed to thrive.

Rather than a passive backdrop, the environment appears here as a dynamic, responsive presence that reflects our fears, fantasies, and vulnerabilities. The exhibition moves between the personal and the speculative, the playful and the profound, offering multiple ways of seeing and understanding our place within these entangled systems.

Many of the artists draw attention to what is often overlooked: fragile habitats, invasive species, hidden urban ecologies, and the complex worlds beneath our feet. Shifting perspective from the microscopic to the monumental, the exhibition foregrounds interconnection across all forms of life. It suggests that creativity – through art, world-building, storytelling, publishing, and play – can help us think differently about the future, encouraging new ways of living with and caring for the natural world.

Instagram and Facebook Censorship

On March 28th I woke up to notifications via my Instagram account @stuartsandford that it had been disabled (along with Facebook and Threads) for violating community standards on ‘fraud and deception’. There was no warning and no chance to appeal or ask for a review against this bizarre decision.

I’ve been trying for almost three weeks to retrieve the account via various methods but so far none have been successful. I can only assume that Meta took this action in an attempt to silence queer art and a queer artist. Many friends and colleagues have been also targeted recently for their supposed breach of Meta’s opaque and arbitrary ‘Community Standards’ but an accusation of fraud and deception will absolutely not be met with silence on my part.

I’m going to continue to attempt to regain access to my accounts and those connections and patrons I’ve built up over almost 20 years of using Facebook and 15 with Instagram. As much as I believe Meta to be a shitty company with no regard for art or creativity except for one it sutis them (i.e. their shareholders), there are many important connections I would like to retain, including family and friends from around the world, that I might not otherwise be connected with.

I’ve reached out the Guardian as well as The Art Newspaper to cover the story and I think this is the way forward. Any censorship of queer art and artists is not acceptable. Many of us are living in darker, more unstable times than we’ve known and art is needed now more than ever. With that in mind I would ask that you share this far and wide on your socials and help me make an issue out of it for all of us.

You can report and track cases like this via www.reprouncensored.org and here is a global map of digital censorship www.reprouncensored.org/map

FXLK PLAY - installation photos

A First-of-Its-Kind Exhibition Celebrating TOM House’s LGBTQ+ Artists-in-Residence ON VIEW THROUGH MARCH 19TH 2026

Curated by Jamison Edgar

This exhibition celebrates fifteen years of artists-in-residence at Tom of Finland Foundation and frames TOM House as a living pantheon of Queer mythmaking.

FXLK PLAY transforms Long Hall into an immersive exhibition of painting, sculpture, and video that evokes the maximalist nature of TOM House and its world-renowned erotic art archive. The exhibition positions the Foundation as a living site of Queer mythmaking.

Featuring works from Tom of Finland Foundation’s permanent collection and archives, the group show is organized into three thematic collections and features an immersive installation of artists’ videos, a listening station with reflections from past residents, and a comprehensive timeline of TOM House.

Exhibition Manager: Catalina Bulgach

PHOTOS BY JON VISCOTT - COURTESY OF THE CITY OF WEST HOLLYWOOD

FXLK PLAY - on view in Los Angeles through March 19th

This exhibition celebrates fifteen years of artists-in-residence at Tom of Finland Foundation and frames TOM House as a living pantheon of Queer mythmaking. For over forty years, artists have passed through TOM House, not just drawing from Tom’s legacy, but reshaping it—bending it, stretching it, slipping into it. The exhibition proposes Tom of Finland as a modern folk hero, with his move to Los Angeles marking a shift from underground icon to something larger: a mythic figure whose image is continually rewritten through the desires, anxieties, and fantasies of Queer life today.

FXLK PLAY: Artists-in-Mischief, Devotion, and Mythmaking is curated by LA based independent curator Jamison Edgar and features works from Tom of Finland Foundation’s permanent collection, archives, and selected loans.

Participating artists include: Marcel Alcalá, Pol Anglada, Sam Ashby, Aurélien Nobécourt-Arras, Yinon Avoir Philipsohn, M Black, Tristor Blue, Rachel Britton, Rowland Byass, Tom Cho, Antonio Da Silva, Ryan Davis, James Davison, Carlos Enfedaque, Felix d’Eon, Michael Espinoza, Xiaobing Fan, Fausto, Ed Firth, Carrington Galen, FCK-Frédérick Gautier, Jordan Michael Green, Brian Grillo, Onur Hastürk, Mark Timothy Hayward, Antoni Hervás, Florian Hetz, Rinaldo Hopf, Hovvrad, Yun-Pei, Jamison Rockmore, Antti Kauppinen, Christine Kessler, Michael Kirwan, Bas Kosters, Phuc Le, Rev. Steven Johnson Leyba, David Lindert, Jacob Love, Łukasz Leja, Éamon McGivern, Konstantinos Menelaou, Mies Mikkonen, Carta Monir, Oat Montien, Orpheus, Palanca, Joel Parsons, Gio Black Peter, Brontez Purnell, Tero Puha, Stuart Sandford, Donald C. Shorter Jr., Jonathan David Smyth, Sung Hwan Bobby Park, Sweatmother, Vincent Tiley, Basil Twist, frank.xarate, Henning von Berg, Daphne Von Rey, Gray Wielebinski, Ben Youdan, and Paweł Żukowski.

Brent, 2014, archival pigment print in artists frame, 40 x 30 in

Courage en couleur – Arts & Voix on view now in Nice, France

Courage in Colour – Arts & Voice is a queer art exhibition and drag show at NEO art & culture lab x VogelART in Nice, produced in collaboration with the LGBTQIA+ Centre Côte d'Azur, Prism'Art and Vogel ART .

The exhibition is dedicated to the theme of LGBTphobia , not as an abstract concept, but as a real form of social violence that scars, restricts, and threatens lives. Courage in Color is also intended as an act of resistance: loud, visible, and united.

The works presented oscillate between visual arts, performance, and voice. They speak of vulnerability and anger, self-affirmation, identity, and queer joy. Color then becomes the expression of
courage—the courage to show oneself, the courage to love, the courage to oppose exclusion.

The exhibition is accompanied by a drag show, where art becomes voice and performance a political gesture. Drag is not just entertainment, but an expression of freedom, self-determination, and collective strength.

 Courage in Colour – Arts & Voices creates a space for encounter, exchange and visibility. A space where queer perspectives are not explained, but celebrated – and where art is a tool against hate and for solidarity.

Courage in Color – Arts & Voice

Opening reception February 26, 2026, 6-9 pm.
Art exhibition from February 26 to March 7, 2026.

Open Wednesday to Sunday from 2 pm to 7 pm, Free admission

Drag Show, February 28, 2026, 6 p.m.,  Free admission

 NEO art & culture lab x VogelART
6 bis rue Lascaris, Nice, France

List of drag queens:
AVILA, APOLLEON and MEDEE KING

List of Artists
David Apakidze, Paul Arthur, Christopher Barraja, Norbert Bisky, Jordi Chicletol, Andreas Chwatal, Jean Cocteau, Gaétan Dubroca, Tom of Finland, Ricardo Fumanal, John Giorno, Greg Gorman, David Hockney, Florian Levy, Dietmar Lutz, Mil Imeraj, Navot Miller, Eleni Manolopoulos, Joseph W. Ohlert-Grammel, Jordan Pallages, Jack Pierson, Daniel Rachamim & Ron Sabag, Janina Roider, Eros Tigran, Marc Turlan, Stuart Sandford, Christian Schoeler, Henning Strassburger, Donatien Veismann, Andy Warhol, Wojciech Wos

and more

Pictures - opening reception

A few snaps from the opening reception of Pictures in Sitges, Spain which runs through February 8th 2026. For a full list of available works, please contact the gallery directly.

www.bnudeart.com

In Youth Is Pleasure - video walkthrough

A short video walkthrough of In Youth Is Pleasure, my current solo exhibition at the Bob Mizer Museum and Photographic Archives in San Francisco running through January 6 2026.

In Youth Is Pleasure - T-shirt and Exhibition Poster

To celebrate In Youth Is Pleasure, my current solo exhibition at the Bob Mizer Museum and Photographic Archives, I’ve made a new gender neutral t-shirt and an exhibition poster featuring the key artwork which are now available to purchase.

The t-shirt is made from 100% organic ring-spun cotton with a digital (DTG) print of the main exhibition poster photograph - Pacôme in Venice, 2018. Limited run of 50. Available here.

The exhibition poster is a digital print on museum-quality matte paper. Paper weight: 189 g/m². Available in 2 sizes: 12 × 18 in / 30 × 45 cm or 24 × 36 in / 60 × 91 cm. Available here.

In Youth Is Pleasure - installation views

Installation views of 𝐈𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐬 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 on view now at the Bob Mizer Museum and Photographic Archives in San Francisco and running through November 29. Email for a full list of available works.

Adlocutio (Sean Ford) gender neutral T-Shirt

A new T-Shirt released to coincide with the book Queering the Circle into a Spiral: Eternity, Temporality and the Art of Stuart Sandford by Stephen Baycroft & Stuart Sandford and featuring the cover image.

Digital print on organic cotton T-Shirt, made of 100% organic ring-spun cotton. Fabric weight: 180 gsm. Available in pink cotton. Limited run of 50.

S 36/38" // M38/40" // L 41/43" // XL 43/45"

Available now.

In Youth Is Pleasure - solo exhibition at the Bob Mizer Foundation in San Francisco, CA

Excited to announce my first ever solo exhibition in San Francisco! Opening September 4th at the Bob Mizer Foundation and running through November 29th 2025. More details below.

Stuart Sandford: In Youth Is Pleasure
September 4 – November 29, 2025
The Bob Mizer Foundation
920 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA

The Bob Mizer Foundation Announces San Francisco Debut of Photographer Stuart Sandford with In Youth Is Pleasure

San Francisco, CA — The Bob Mizer Foundation is thrilled to present the San Francisco debut of UK/Mexico City–based photographer Stuart Sandford. His solo exhibition, In Youth Is Pleasure, will be on view from September 4 through November 29, 2025, at the Foundation’s exhibition space in the Tenderloin.

Drawing from his recently released monograph Stuart Sandford XX, celebrating 20 years of his 35mm photography work, this exhibition offers a stunning selection of photographs that explore the beauty, vulnerability, and sensuality of youth. With images that range from quiet moments in sunlit bedrooms to the haziness of post-coital intimacy, Sandford captures the emotional and physical landscape of being young and alive.

Sandford’s work captures the exhilarating essence of youth, celebrating the joy, freedom, and intimacy of being young and alive. Through his evocative portraits of friends and lovers, he invites viewers to experience sensuality and connection. Sandford’s portraits are revealing and retain a sense of mystery and intimacy. From lounging on unmade beds to the haziness of post-coital moments, his photographs capture the fleeting interval between lovers and between photographer and muse. Through his lens, Sandford invites viewers into the world of his friends, lovers, and associates.

“Sandford embodies the spirit of Bob Mizer,” said De Kwok, Head of Programming at the Foundation. “When we first encountered his work, we immediately noted the joyful exuberance that echoes much of Mizer’s energy. Through his lens, viewers are invited into fleeting moments of connection between friends, lovers, and muses.”

Known for his intimate portraits and evocative storytelling, Sandford’s work has been included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and the Centre de la Photographie Genève, and featured in numerous high-profile publications, including the Sir Elton John Photography Collection. He is currently in development for his first feature film.

Join us for a special event:
An Evening with Stuart Sandford
TBD — 7:00 PM (PST)
Live on Zoom

Stuart Sandford will host an exclusive online presentation about his work, artistic process, and the inspirations behind his powerful photographs. Don’t miss this chance to hear directly from the artist.

For media inquiries or to RSVP for the Zoom event, please contact:
info@bobmizer.org
www.bobmizer.org

For press inquiries, images, or interview requests, please contact:
Corbin Crable
Bob Mizer Foundation
staff@bobmizer.org
bobmizer.org

Exhibition Details:

  • Title: Stuart Sandford: In Youth Is Pleasure

  • Dates: September 4 – November 29, 2025

  • Location: Bob Mizer Foundation, 920 Larkin St., San Francisco, CA

  • Opening Reception: September 4, 2025 6:00-8:30 PM

About the Bob Mizer Foundation and Research Center:

The Bob Mizer Foundation is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Bob Mizer, one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. The Foundation houses Mizer’s extensive archive of photographs, films, and publications, and promotes the study of physique photography and its impact on modern visual culture. Through exhibitions, publications, and educational programs, the Foundation continues to foster an appreciation for Mizer’s work and its enduring influence on contemporary art.

The Prisoner (after Michelangelo) limited edition plate

I’ve created a new limited edition plate based on my sculpture from 2021 with Sean Ford The Prisoner (after Michelangelo). I’ve wanted to produce some plates with my photography and sculpture work for a while now and I’m happy to say I’ve found a great collaborator based in London. The plates are hand made bone china and are available now.

The plate is 8 inch / 20 cm in diameter and you can choose between a Wall Hanging mount or Upright Stand. Edition of 45. Each plate is signed, dated, and numbered on the reverse. Ships in a bespoke canvas bag. The price is $145 (plus shipping) and is subject to increase.

Available to purchase now via my website

Life Sex Love - Aspects of Queer Life - on view now in Cologne, Germany

LIFE SEX LOVE - a group exhibition at Galerie Biesenbach in Cologne, Germany is now on view through August 30. The exhibition explores aspects of queer life through multiple mediums including photography, painting, sculpture, and drawing from both local and international artists.

Participating artists:

- Rebecca Bournigault
- Max Gehlofen
- Hà Minh
- Richard Helbin
- Franziska Koch
- Lukas Moll
- Maurizio Onano
- Stuart Sandford
- Wojciech Woś

Galerie Biesenbach

Lindenstrasse 3450674 Cologne, Germany

art@galerie-biesenbach.com

+49 (0) 174 4909635

Queering the Circle into a Spiral: Eternity, Temporality and the Art of Stuart Sandford

I’m honoured to announce a new book about my work and its place in both art history and queer arts practices, written by the art historian, author and curator Stephen Baycroft. 200 copies of the 1st edition have been printed and the book will be available soon.

A special signed slipcase edition will be available when purchasing an edition of the 12 inch Adlocutio (Sean Ford), 2025 produced to coincide with the release of this book. Available to purchase here.

From the black cover:

“Stuart Sandford’s artworks are explored in this book in relation to the shift of contemporary artistic discussions away from the use of the noun ‘queer’, toward the use of the verb ‘queering’ to explore how heteronormative hab- its, prejudices and traditions may be subverted (and thus overcome) using non-heteronormative thinking and visual artmaking. The queer(ing) use of subversions of heteronormative thinking and visual artmaking to pursue new paradisiacal ways of being, allow the production of non-heteronormative photographic, cinematographic, painterly, sculptural and photograph-based sculptural artworks by Sandford and other queer(ing) artists, to be explored in terms of breaking the ‘mind-forg’d conceptual manacles’ of the thinking of these artists and the spectators of their artworks; the use of rites of passage to have inner (mental) apocalyptic experiences of ‘self’-sacrifice and ‘self’-re- newal; uncanny experiences of cultural hybridisation and haunto(-eco-)logical awareness; the devaluation of a ‘root identity’ in favour of either a ‘personal relation identity’ or an ‘impersonal relational ethic’; and the undercommoner replacement of a heteronormative ‘old commons’ with a non-heteronormative ‘new commons’.

The queer(ing) relationships between lifeless nude sculptures, living nudes and living nude sculptures, are discussed in this book in terms of artistic revalu- ations of the Nietzschean concepts of eternal recurrence and the coming of the Janusian Superman; recurring circular temporal experiences of uncannily interweaving the ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘future’; the oracular hearing of Dionysiac ‘voices’ and Apolline ‘voices’; ‘shamanic’ magical and ecstatic experiences; and the masculine arts of ‘love-bombing’ and ‘love-bonding’. Queer(ing) experienc- es allow artists and the spectators of their artworks to undergo the ‘self’-sacri- ficial and ‘self’-renewing revaluations of their own perceptual and conceptual norms, needed to adapt to (and thus survive) the challenges posed by the con- tinuously changing flux of beings and events in the universe.”

Hardcover, 362 pages, 1st edition of 200 copies

Desire, Intimacy, Beauty and the Queering Spiral of Temporality

© text: Stuart Sandford, 2025

Queering the Circle into a Spiral: Eternity, Temporality and the Art of Stuart Sandford

© text: Stephen Baycroft, 2025

Published by Stephen Baycroft, 2025 www.BaycroftPublishing.co.uk

ISBN: 978-0-9955276-4-5

Cover design © Stuart Sandford, 2025

Images © Stuart Sandford, 2025

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including pho- tocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without per- mission from the publisher.

Book design and typesetting by Stuart Sandford

Cover illustration: Adlocutio (Sean Ford), (detail)

MY ROMANTIC IDEAL - A Queer Photography exhibition curated by Slava Mogutin

MY ROMANTIC IDEAL
A Queer Photography exhibition curated by Slava Mogutin
May 1–August 31, 2025
Opening reception: Thursday, May 1, 6-8 PM

Featured artists: 

Alejandro Ruiz, Ben Prince, Benjamin Fredrickson, Brian Kenny, Bruce LaBruce, Cameron Lee Phan, Carter Peabody, Donovan Quiroz, Francis Schichtel, Gerardo Vizmanos, Gio Black Peter, Jan Wandrag, Łukasz Leja, Luke Abby, Matt Lambert, Miguel Villalobos, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Quil Lemons, Robert Flynt, Ross Collab, Scott Hug, Slava Mogutin, Stanley Stellar, Stuart Sandford, Tom Bianchi, Tony Solis, Tyler Matthew Oyer, Victor Jeffreys II

The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division
The LGBTQ+ Community Center
208 W 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY 10011

www.bgsqd.com/event/opening-reception-my-romantic-ideal

Brief Encounters: Queer Instant Photography - installation views

A few installation shots of Brief Encounters: Queer Instant Photography which runs through February 28th at Carnation Contemporary in Portland, Oregon.

Exhibiting Artists:

Ryan Rudewicz @rude.polaroids Wayne Bund @bundlandia Ian Lewandowski @ilewando Soft Butch @soft_butch Catalina Bulgach @oldassdutchess Nate Francis @natehfrancis Tom Kay @tomofportland Jamieson Edson @j_a_m_i_e_s Chris Moody @horsegurlpress José Tinoco @j0setin0c0 Shadows Gather @shadows.gather Kareem Michael Worrell @kareemworrellphoto C Meier @rispix Christian Rogers @christianmakesthings Michael Espinoza @michaelespinozaart Jackson Fader @bigbrojacks Stuart Sandford @stuartsandford Carlos Enfedaque @enfedead

Brief Encounters: Queer Instant Photography

Brief Encounters is an exploration of the legacy of artists using instant photography to express the queer experience. Queer people have used instant formats to protect the free expression of their intimacies, relationships, sexual liaisons, and communities; some of the risks of showing these images exist to this day. Brief Encounters functions to encourage artists to freely express aspects of queerness, resulting in diverse approaches to the instant format. Audiences will witness deeply personal glimpses into the lives of these artists as well as wild departures from what one may expect from “queer photography.”

Brief Encounters: Queer Instant Photography

Opening Reception: Feb 1, 5-9pm Runs Feb 1-28, 2025

Carnation Contemporary 8317 N Interstate Ave, Portland, OR

Exhibiting Artists: Ryan Rudewicz @rude.polaroids Wayne Bund @bundlandia Ian Lewandowski @ilewando Soft Butch @soft_butch Catalina Bulgach @oldassdutchess Nate Francis @natehfrancis Tom Kay @tomofportland Jamieson Edson @j_a_m_i_e_s Chris Moody @horsegurlpress José Tinoco @j0setin0c0 Shadows Gather @shadows.gather Kareem Michael Worrell @kareemworrellphoto C Meier @rispix Christian Rogers @christianmakesthings Michael Espinoza @michaelespinozaart Jackson Fader @bigbrojacks Stuart Sandford @stuartsandford Carlos Enfedaque @enfedead