Show Notes
Clifford Prince King is a self-taught queer Black photographer from Arizona. The images in this exhibition focus on King’s life in Los Angeles. In his work, King’s lifestyle and experiences are starting points to explore desire, intimacy, and day-to-day life with HIV. King’s images chronicle himself and others located in lamp-lit domestic settings. We see a brotherhood of men enacting moments of domestic bliss, nude bodies in the moments before or after a sexual encounter, and the side effects and routine of living with HIV. After King’s diagnosis, he focused anew on understanding the legacy of the AIDS crisis and the artists who responded to it. He took refuge in the words and images of those who once shared an experience like his own, and his work evokes that history while developing a language all his own. In talking about his practice, King returns time and again to the life-affirming aspects of his relationships. In We Used to Lay Together, King has compiled a body of work that explores affection in all its varieties―the simple parts of intimacy, often overlooked but universal.
cliffordprinceking.com
—
Intro/Outro Music: Vela Vela by Blue Dot Sessions
Special thanks to Daylight Blue Media daylightblue.com
Light Work lightwork.org
Music: "Backed Vibes Clean" by Kevin MacLeod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Light Work Podcast
Sayler/Morris and Christina Seely: museum August 24 – December 11, 2026 Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery Opening Reception: Thursday, September 24, 5-7 PM
2026 Light Work Grants in Photography: Maureen Beitler, Hernease Davis, Ian Sherlock Molloy, Amrita Stützle, and Patty Tomanovich June 15 – August 7, 2026 Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery Reception: Friday, August 7, 5-7pm
We’re Just Here for the Bad Guys chronicles Brian Van Lau’s relationship with his estranged father. Lau’s father was absent during his childhood due to his incarceration. After his release, he rebuilt his life in Vietnam, remarried, and gradually disappeared from Lau’s life. Nearly a decade later, Lau traveled to Vietnam following his father’s sudden illness, and learned of his terminal cancer. During their final week together, they collaborated on a photographic project that documented his father’s unsuccessful path toward recovery. After his father’s passing, Lau returned to his hometown in Hawai‘i seeking closure, uncovering hidden correspondence that revealed previously unknown parts of his father’s life. Entrusted with dispersing his father’s ashes across O‘ahu, the artist began working with his grandparents to reconstruct this fragmented family history through photography.
In her first US solo exhibition, Karolina Wojtas is sending us a conceptual care package, as an installation titled Made in Poland. Presented here are images of her family, friends, sometimes herself, kitsch objects, and folkish cultural treasures. These images are printed onto inkjet paper and textiles; soft sculptures, a video, and a text piece in the form of a letter together make up Wojtas’s own little fun fair in the Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery.
Sasha Phyars-Burgess: Everything Nice September 8–December 5, 2025 Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery Reception: Thurs, Sep 18, 5-7pm