Acid Bath House

A charged, otherworldly sensibility animates Acid Bath House, the group exhibition at Nina Johnson curated by critic and writer Jarrett Earnest. Conceived from an experience he describes in the exhibition text as "an acid-fueled night at a Washington, DC bathhouse," the show examines queer erotic psychedelia as both a visual language and a mode of perception. Earnest’s narrative serves less as memoir than as conceptual anchor, framing the exhibition as a study of how desire, disorientation and imagination shape queer spaces and the art that emerges from them.

The presentation brings together photography, sculpture, textiles, painting and works on paper by artists including Juliana Huxtable, TM Davy, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Steven Arnold and others. Seen collectively, the works create an environment attentive to pleasure, glamour and the ways artists transform the everyday, sometimes even the discarded, into something luminous. Earnest has spoken of queer glamour in its historic sense: a spell of altered perception. That idea threads through the show, whether in Arnold’s never-before-exhibited LSD drawing or in the varied approaches that turn materials, bodies and symbols into sites of reinvention.

The exhibition also reflects Earnest’s connection to South Florida. Raised in the region, he situates Acid Bath House within the state’s increasingly challenging climate for queer and trans communities, positioning the show as both a celebration of creative lineage and an acknowledgment of the broader cultural landscape. Presented during Miami Art Week, the exhibition underscores the role of queer expression as a sustaining force—risky, imaginative and attuned to beauty even in difficult contexts.

Participating artists include Steven Arnold, Belasco, Sean Bennett, Anna Betbeze, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Jake Brush, Matt Connors, Gaby Collins-Fernandez, TM Davy, Johnnie Gardner, Jesse Genepi, Sadao Hasegawa, Juliana Huxtable, Savannah Knoop, Keith Lafuente, Moses Leonardo, Chris Martin, Reuben Paterson, Yuval Pudik, Lee Relvas, Dean Sameshima, Laurel Sparks, Paula Gately Tillman, Chris Udemezue, Nicole Wittenberg and Carrie Yamaoka.

Acid Bath House is on view December 1 through February 7 in the Front Gallery at Nina Johnson, with extended viewing through February 14.