City of West Hollywood Presents Art Exhibition Featuring Works from the Tom of Finland Foundation’s Artist-in-Residence Program

The City of West Hollywood announces the opening of FXLK PLAY: Artists-in-Mischief, Devotion, and Mythmaking, a survey exhibition of the Tom of Finland Foundation's Artist-in-Residence Program at Plummer Park's Long Hall, located at 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard. This free exhibition will be open from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursdays through Sundays from Thursday, February 19, 2026 through Thursday, March 19, 2026. The exhibition is intended for mature audiences only and docents will be onsite to answer questions. An opening reception, including a performance and a panel discussion with past and current artists, will take place on Thursday, February 19, 2026, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

FXLK PLAY will transform Plummer Park's Long Hall into an immersive exhibition of painting, sculpture, and video that reflects the maximalist spirit of TOM House and its world-renowned erotic art archive. The title of the exhibit is a stylized nod to "folk play." Drawing from the Foundation's archive, FXLK PLAY will bring together work by more than 60 LGBTQ+ artists who have participated in the Foundation's Artist-in-Residence Program. Curated by Jamison Edgar, the exhibition positions the Foundation as a living site of queer mythmaking, foregrounding how artists-in-residence draw from Tom's legacy while reshaping it through devotion, play, and mischief.

The exhibition 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 from 1979 to 2026. The collections in the exhibition include:

• House of Gods, which highlights TOM House as a living archive of symbols and icons that artists-in-residence conjure through ritual, research, and creative practice;

• Pleasure Park, which champions queer desire, inspired by the gardens and intimate spaces throughout TOM House; and

• Skeletons in the Dungeon, which examines the nuances of taboo, kink, and submission, as well as the resilience of artists-in-residence in the face of racist, transphobic, and homophobic violence.

Participating artists include: Marcel Alcalá, Pol Anglada, Sam Ashby, Yinon Avoir, 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, Basil Twist, frank.xarate, Henning von Berg, Daphne Von Rey, Gray Wielebinski, Ben Youdan, and Paweł Żukowski.

Founded in 1984 by Tom and Durk Dehner to preserve Tom of Finland's work, Tom of Finland Foundation has become a vital home for LGBTQ+ art and artists. Responding to censorship and discrimination, the Foundation provides a safe space and visibility for work exploring sexuality, identity, and queer experience. Its holdings include more than 1,000 original works by Tom, 8,000 works by other LGBTQ+ artists, a library of 3,500 books, and 400 linear feet of archival materials documenting over 50 years of LGBTQ+ culture. The Foundation's three-month Artist-in-Residence Program provides emerging and established LGBTQIA artists with an immersive environment to explore, experiment, and create work across disciplines such as drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture, and engage with the Foundation's extensive collections and archives to inspire new projects, culminating in a public presentation.

The City of West Hollywood's Arts Division delivers a broad array of arts programs including Art on the Outside (temporary public art), City Poet Laureate, Drag Laureate, Free Theatre in the Parks, Arts Grants, Library Exhibits, Summer Sounds + Winter Sounds, Urban Art (permanent public art), the WeHo Pride Arts Festival, and WeHo Reads. For more information about City of West Hollywood arts programming, please visit https://www.weho.org/arts.

For more information about the exhibition, please contact Marcus Mitchell, City of West Hollywood Public Art Administrator, at (323) 848-3122 or at [email protected]. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing dial 711 or 1-800-735-2929 (TTY) or 1-800-735-2922 (voice) for California Relay Service (CRS) assistance.

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For reporters and members of the media seeking additional information about the City of West Hollywood, please contact the City of West Hollywood's Public Information Officer, Sheri A. Lunn, at (323) 848-6391 or [email protected].