you’re here, too
These memory spaces are an extension of a larger body of work entitled ‘You’re here too’, a mixed-media project that unveils varying nuances of queer Filipinx and Asian experience, grounded in intimacy and shared introspection. Through still and moving portraits, and recorded conversations, this work is an act of shared storytelling, evoking immediacy and tenderness through its course between moments of joy, solitude, and peace, as much as the exchange is rooted in resilience and resolution.
My practice at its core embraces image-making and storytelling as a conduit between one person’s experiences to another, and reinforcing empathy in its way. ‘You’re here, too’ marks a meaningful juncture to hold space, to build community and belonging, and to encourage bearing witness and mutual care, however intimate or urgent they may come.
Beau Gomez
Beau Gomez is a Filipino-Canadian visual artist based in Toronto and Montréal. His practice is informed by ideas, challenges and conversations around cross-cultural narratives, as they relate to positions of queerness and community. A portraitist at heart, his work is anchored by image-making and storytelling as conduits between one person’s experiences to another, giving permission to shared means of reckoning, reconditioning, and nurturing.
Select exhibitions include Propeller Art Gallery, Magenta Foundation, La Gaîté Lyrique, and Toronto International Film Festival. He recently presented his first solo exhibition at Artspace Gallery (Toronto), and is an upcoming artist-in-residence at VU Photo (Quebec City). He equally devotes his time to community engagement, and has contributed to organizations including Reel Asian Film Festival, The Site Magazine, Pride Toronto/Montréal and Critical Distance Centre for Curators. In 2019, he launched Fixer, a gathering of emerging image-makers, writers and creative thinkers in an engaged critique on works in progress. Beau holds a BFA in Photography Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University.