Exhibition Information for Immediate Release
WEAM and the Kinsey Institute are pleased to present a new exhibition, Mariette Pathy Allen: Breaking
Boundaries, which will open on December 2nd, 2024 to start off Miami Art Week.
For press inquiries & information concerning these exhibitions, please contact: info@weam.com or
petercam@iu.edu
Exhibition: Mariette Pathy Allen: Breaking Boundaries
Curated by: Jesse Egner and Rebecca Fasman
Location: WEAM, 1205 Washington Avenue, Miami, FL
Dates: December 2, 2024 - July 2025
Opening: December 2nd, 6-7pm Press & VIP preview, 7-10pm public opening
We are proud to present an extraordinary retrospective of the groundbreaking work of photographer
Mariette Pathy Allen, whose ongoing practice over the last five decades has captured the love, beauty,
intimacy, joy, and heartache of transgender and gender-expansive communities across the globe. This
exhibition offers a powerful look into the evolution of attitudes toward transgender, non-binary,
gender-fluid, and gender non-conforming individuals, seen through the lens of an artist who has dedicated
her career to the humane and dignified portrayal of these communities.
Mariette Pathy Allen’s photographic journey with gender diversity began in 1978, with images of this
often underrepresented community defying the sensationalism often seen in media coverage at the time.
Her intimate portraits of individuals, couples, and families depicted as relatable people helped reshape the
then common perceptions of gender-variant individuals as freaks or deviants. Allen’s disarming modus
operandi throughout her career has been to extend invitations to countless individuals to be themselves in
front of her camera. In her photographs, Allen and her subjects bear witness to the profound truths of
gender-nonconformity; truths she beheld since the first time she took a photograph of a transgender
person in 1978 and felt she was “not looking at a man or a woman, but the essence of a human being.”
Allen’s first book, Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them (1989), was a
groundbreaking exploration and recognition of this widely overlooked and misunderstood community
depicting them as partners, lovers, parents, families, and friends. Allen’s 2003 book, The Gender Frontier,
illustrates and reflects upon a changing political climate through photographs and text covering political
activism, queer youth, and a range of transgender people in the United States. Since then, Allen has turned
her lens to other parts of the world to photograph gender-expansive communities internationally, leading
to her books TransCuba and Transcendents: Spirit Mediums in Burma and Thailand. Published in 2014,
TransCuba documents the transgender community of Cuba during a time of increased visibility and
acceptance. Transcendents, published three years later in 2017, provides a glimpse into the gender variant
world of spirit mediums in Burma and Thailand. Allen has also been continuing her work in the United
States with an ongoing series titled Gender Expanded, offering representations and celebrations of
transgender identities, experiences, and relationships.
This comprehensive exhibition traces the progression of Allen’s career, spanning five decades of work in
support of transgender visibility and dignity. Her photographs continue to serve as both artistic treasures
and historical documents of a community that has been continuously marginalized, yet thrives with
strength and perseverance—especially during our current political climate that is once again changing, in
ways that attempt to diminish the validity of transgender individuals and threaten their safety.
This exhibition travels to WEAM in Miami, a museum well-known and beloved for their beautiful and
provocative exhibitions. Both Kinsey and WEAM are thrilled to be able to present these timely and
impactful works at a time when the rights of LGBTQIA+ people are under attack.
Visit weam.com to get your ticket for the opening reception.
This exhibition opens on December 2nd and will remain on view