SPOKE Gallery

Spoke Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition by Kurt Reynolds entitled, Legislating Hate: The Destruction Of Allegiances And Democracy. This is not the first time Spoke Gallery has had the honor to show his work. He was one of the exhibiting artists in Spoke Gallery’s 2014 02127/02210, an annual summer exhibition which also featured the work of Walter Crump, Laura Davidson, Jane Deutsch, Josh Falk, Lilliana Folta, Jeffrey Heyne, James Montford, Kenji Nakayama and Mary Sherman. The summer annuals ran from 2012 to 2019 when Spoke Gallery was located at its much larger K Street site. These exhibitions highlighted the breadth of talent South Boston is so lucky to have in its two zip codes. Reynolds lived in South Boston’s 02127 zip code from 2004 to 2014.

Reynolds is known for a body of work that chronicles the earliest days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. At that time his work was exhibited widely and documented in the media. He continues to explore political, social and environment issues and their intersection with international conflict, war, loss, grief, and healing. For this solo show,Reynolds is showing a key 1994 piece from his HIV/AIDS body of work along with recent assemblages. He is also debuting a new wall based installation that shares the same title as the title of his exhibition. All of the works on display draw from current, recent and/or related historical events. For example, his 2024 assemblage work, which is also the image for the show’s postcard, is entitled, “Christian Nationalism and the Insurrection of January 6, 2021”, directly references the history and the rise of Christian Nationalism here and beyond and the unprecedented 2021 event that shook the U.S.

The objects and materials in Reynold’s assemblages are carefully chosen by him and help to underscore the intent and meaning of his works. He shares this insight about his art making process: “As an assemblage artist, my first task is gathering my thoughts and materials which at times can be lengthy and involved. There is a period of research, conversation, and collaboration which comprises the emotional, political and personal process of my art making…. I often use found, selected, and purchased memorabilia, which can be historic, and hold the broader space for allegory and metaphor, alongside documentation.”

Reynold’s beautiful thought-provoking art is deeply rooted in his work history, advocacy, and personal experiences. He shares, “I was involved in the fight for inclusion of children with differing abilities to be served in the public school system in the 1970’s, alongside positions working in the field of education and as an art therapist with children and adults. I have worked as a licensed mental health provider and  in program development and administration of supporting the needs of people living and dying with HIV/AIDS beginning in the 1980’s, and onward with numerous affiliations and projects in the arts and social services. As a gay man, long-term HIV/AIDS survivor, and Activist Artist I watch my country spinning towards Fascism.”

His new large-scale installation, Legislating Hate: The Destruction Of Allegiances And Democracy, according Reynolds, “… is meant of provide a visual and tactile environment for the examination proposed anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation which creates an infrastructure for the destruction of Democracy.” This potent and chilling piece is comprised of five components: 1) Deconstructed American Flags- that directly reference what current anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, regulations, and policies the federal government and certain state governments are implementing that are causing the fragmentation and loss of a united, integral country, and the division and divisiveness that is tearing-apart the lives of people. 2) Bundles of Sticks – which are meant to represent the history of humans burning humans – from religious persecution, to self-acts of protest, to terrorism, to the ovens of the holocaust, etc. These sticks also reference the derogatory term for gay men which derives from: a faggot of sticks used to start a fire to burn something (or someone). Reynolds collected his initial bundles of sticks from the “Fens”, a part of the Boston’s Emerald Necklace Park system to reference a place and time where, despite the dangers gay people gathered. The dangers were that gay men were criminalized entrapped, harassed shammed and the political climate of the time made it acceptable to harass and assault individual gay men. 3) An Empty Wheel Barrel – that is covered in hand sewn American flags of different sizes, cloths, and ages-many dating back to the late 1800’s. This object references the use of wheel barrels in the transporting of bodies to mass graves and to the funeral pyres of war and genocide. 4) A 8’x11’ Map of the Unites States – that is drawn in pencil onto canvas with the intention of providing a tactile map depicting the legislative actions that embrace and promote hate, persecution, and human erasure. By choosing to draw the map in pencil, Reynolds, is also underscoring the fragility of the union of the “United States of America”. 5) Informational Tags- that highlight state anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation and regulations that have been filed and/or passed. Reynolds sourced this information from the ACLU’s website on April 11^th 2025.

Reynold’s powerful and timely exhibition is a direct call to action to save our country’s democracy and to protect the civil rights that so many fought so hard to obtain. And there is no time to waste.

“The civil rights movement didn’t begin in Montgomery and it didn’t end in the 1960s. It continues on to this very minute.”— Julian Bond, co-founder and first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center

“Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.”–Timothy D. Snyder, American Historian

About Kurt Reynolds

He is a graduate of Mass College of Art & Design and he holds a Master’s in Education from the Arts institute of Lesley College. He most recently showed his work at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Rice Polak Gallery, the Commons, the Provincetown Museum, and the Fine Arts Works Center.  Reynolds was the co-founder of Visual AIDS Boston and he has participated and consulted with numerous museums and arts organizations over the years on HIV/AIDS art related programing: the MFA the Rose Art Museum, the Boston center for the Arts, UMass Boston, etc.  His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and also in many other private collections.  For more information:

https://kurtreynoldsart.net/