Agosto Machado, NYC 2009

SHE’S FIRE

13th January - 24th February 2024

Alice O’Malley is renowned for her portraits of New York’s most notorious downtown personalities. Her subjects are the artists, poets, eccentrics, and visionaries that inhabit the vibrant 21st-century demimonde of lower Manhattan, tracing community as an elusive concept, defined not by bloodlines or institutions but by what friends do and make together. The central body of work, Community of Elsewheres, is a queer intersectional space - a circle of celestial elders and underground angels that speak across generations.

Her first subjects were performers from legendary New York nightclubs, including Jackie 60, Clit Club, Squeezebox, and Club Casanova. Along with this stunning portrait collection, O’Malley presents a digital installation of 90’s new york queer nightlife and activism.

Alice O’Malley’s photographs have been exhibited internationally and published widely. She teaches at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan. The monograph Community of Elsewheres was published by John Marchant and Isis Gallery Editions.

This exhibition has been organised with the kind cooperation of the University of Ulster Art Gallery and The 2023 Outburst Festival in Belfast.