In a unique new exhibition, works from artists such as Andy Warhol and Nan Goldin, highlight the progression of transgender models and subjects

If you’re at an art fair or biennale and spot a pair of bald women wearing matching pink dresses, you’re not seeing double. You’ve just spotted Berlin duo Eva & Adele, legendary art scenesters noted for their style and commitment to trans visibility since forming their partnership in 1989.

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They were mastering the art of the selfie long before social media but they self-describe their rationale as such: “Wherever we are is a museum.”

Now the pair, who have attended almost every high-profile art event since the 1990s, are part of a group exhibition at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. Transamerica/n: Gender, Identity, Appearance Today brings together over 40 years of trans and trans-inspired art from 59 international artists and is on view until 15 September.

“This exhibition is a teaching moment, reflecting the identities of a part of our global community previously underrepresented at the McNay,” said the head curator, René Paul Barilleaux. “Everyone should be able to see themselves, their cultures, their identities, and their passions reflected in our collections and exhibitions. Educating everyone is at the core of our mission.”

Barilleaux had been inspired by the recent wave of trans artworks and wanted to tie them together for a broader art exhibit on its history. “In the past few years, I’ve seen this emphasis of artwork dealing with identity,” he said. “It seemed like a good time to tell that story.”

The museum created two committees, one made up of local artists and the other of activists to help with the exhibition. “To hear voices of our community and make sure it was authentic,” he said. “We had a town hall event for people to come and offer feedback on the exhibition before it opened. It was important that the community had a stake in the process.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Transamerica/n installation image. Photograph: Courtesy of the museum

The exhibit features 10 screen prints from Andy Warhol’s 1975 series Ladies and Gentlemen, which depicts black and Hispanic drag queens and trans personalities from New York’s Greenwich Village scene, including one portrait of Marsha P Johnson. “It’s a logical starting point,” said Barilleaux. “This series is a lead into the show.”

There’s also a photo of a model wearing an elegant dress, strutting through a beauty pageant. The photo was taken by Nan Goldin, and it’s a rare early photo taken in the Boston queer club scene in 1972, before her move to New York. “I’m thinking of the TV series Pose, it’s so reminiscent of this era,” said Barilleaux. “Artists have been dealing with these issues since the beginning of time, it’s now we’re seeing them more pronounced in the forefront.”

There are stunning photos by Peter Hujar, who photographed countless cultural figures in New York’s downtown art scene in the 1970s and, here, shows black and white portraits of the experimental playwright Ethyl Eichelberger.

The exhibit also features self-portraits by Robert Mapplethorpe, one where he’s dressed in drag, as well as a portrait of a lesbian couple by Catherine Opie taken in 1998, the same year she drove across the country photographing lesbian couples in their day-to-day routines. There is also a lithograph by artist Keith Haring, which reads “Ignorance = Fear/Silence = Death,” from 1989.

Eva & Adele are showing three works of video art from their Wings series taken in 1997 and 1998, where they walk in unison wearing winged dresses and matching umbrellas. There’s also a life-sized a photo of the duo, so visitors can take their selfie with them.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Eva & Adele. Photograph: Christoph Neumann

“I’ve been fascinated by their public appearances they make in the art world,” said Barilleaux. “They manage to get to every art fair and biennial, all over the world. The fact that people get to take their photograph with them is part of their art.”

There are works by the Montreal artist JJ Levine, where two people switch their clothing in a pair of mirrored portraits. “It’s pairs of gender flips based on clothing,” said Barilleaux. “It’s one of the most popular works in the show.”

Viewers can walk through the exhibit to follow a timeline, seeing how trans art has changed. “It was more hidden with signifiers and coded with connotation, rather than being upfront and transparent like artwork today,” said Barilleaux.

“Like in Nan Goldin’s photo, if you didn’t know what drag culture was, you might think it was just another beauty pageant,” he said, “but now with Ru Paul’s Drag Race and the rise of drag, it’s a whole different world.”

Some of the newer works include photos by Mark Seliger, who includes shots of the trans model Hari Nef from his 2016 book, Christopher Street: Transgender Stories, as well as a neon sign, created by Jacolby Satterwhite in 2014, which reads: “How Lovely Is Me Being As I Am.”

There are also self-portraits by the trans Latinx artist Martine Gutierrez, who created a fashion magazine called Indigenous Woman, which is filled with high fashion images of the artist.

There’s a wall in the exhibit for people to share their own transition stories, “from a birth to a death to their own transition”, said Barilleaux. “We wanted to broaden it to all kinds of rites of passage and metamorphoses.”

In the end, he says this exhibit is essentially about love. “People think it’s an LGBTQ show but it’s much broader,” said Barilleaux. “I don’t think of it for only trans or the LGBTQ community but to embrace all communities. We wanted to make it as broad as possible and embrace love within that.”