LAUNCH F18 is delighted to present Los Angeles based artist, Clifford Prince King on its online Viewing Room. We are pleased to feature a selection of six recent photographs for this unique presentation titled, Want 2 Love U. Captured throughout these six works are intimate and beautifully tender moments that the artist has frozen within time. This unique presentation will be available and for viewing from May 28 - July 18, 2020.
The works exhibited in Want 2 Love U includes remarkably intimate imagery, capturing love, sex and intimacy presented within an almost poetic framework. Images such as Just The Two of Us, 2019 capture the tenderness of two individuals on an afternoon, in a kitchen that could be anywhere, and within a familiar and tangible frame of time. Circling around these portraits are beautifully saturated colors, electrifying the sensational qualities deep within these works.
Want 2 Love U captures a both deeply romantic qualities, as well as the roughness and complexities of intimacy. These works confront both familiar, and unfamiliar worlds, displaying the very deep complexity of our own human nature. Though there may not be defined clarity, and even at moments unsettling emotions, these works are in fact quite real. For they are filled with the passion and emotion one carries with them from scene to scene, and moment to moment.
We at LAUNCH F18 stand in solidarity with black communities in the US and around the world. Our artists, members of our team and beyond, denounce all forms of racism and police brutality. We, alongside many others, march for a better future. Our hope is a unified, meaningful message that we can build on in order to aid and assist now and in the future. We don’t want to simply rest on a statement but rather create an ongoing platform with purpose, meaning and endurance in a way we know best. We are honored to announce that LAUNCH F18 and Clifford Prince King will donate 100% of all sales from Want 2 Love U to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. In addition we are organizing a special 14 x 11 in open edition of each work by the artist. These prints are each $250, and available through our online store.
Marsha P. Johnson was an activist, self-identified drag queen, performer, and survivor. She was a prominent figure in the Stonewall uprising of 1969. Marsha went by “Black Marsha” before settling on Marsha P. Johnson. The “P” stood for “Pay It No Mind,” which is what Marsha would say in response to questions about her gender.
The Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI) protects and defends the human rights of black transgender people. The MPJI do this by organizing, advocating, creating an intentional community to heal, developing transformative leadership, and promoting our collective power. We at LAUNCH F18 are delighted to announce this initial initiative, and look forward to working with organizations like The MPJI and many others in the future.
Clifford Prince King was raised in Tucson, Arizona and moved to Portland, Oregon immediately after graduating high school. Skipping college, King focused on photography and created images focusing on his daily life. His photographic practice began to showcase coming of age revelations as he navigated racial awareness and sexuality. The bulk of his work is centered around queer black men in intimate, soft, and vulnerable settings. King is constantly studying his blackness with images referencing black hair products, political leaders, and insecurities most African Americans struggle with. King recently moved to Los Angeles at the end of 2017 to further his photographic practice.