Joey Terrill (b. 1955) is a second-generation native of East Los Angeles, a region central to Chicano life, art and culture in the United States. He attended Cathedral High School where he became involved with La Huelga and helped with the Caesar Chavez-led grape and lettuce boycott. During this time, he became aware of Sister Corita Kent, a longstanding faculty member of the Immaculate Heart College art department, who championed progressive, socially conscious artworks made with a pop sensibility. This stance corresponded with Terrill’s ambitions, and he enrolled there in 1973. As a student, he immersed himself in the burgeoning Chicano civil rights movement while exploring “hidden” networks of queer creatives (Gronk, Cyclona, Mundo Meza and, a frequent collaborator, Teddy Sandoval among others). Buoyed by a newfound sense of community, Terrill began a practice based on his life experiences, and by the mid to late 1970s, he was confronting homophobia and racial stereotyping in his artwork.
Joey Terrill attended Immaculate Heart College and California State University, Los Angeles. His work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Ortuzar Projects, New York; Park View / Paul Soto, Los Angeles; ONE Gallery, West Hollywood; Norris Fine Art Gallery, Los Angeles; Score Bar, Los Angeles; and Windows on White Street, New York. His work has been featured in the institutional surveys ESTAMOS BIEN–La Trienal 20/21, El Museo Del Barrio, New York (2020–2021); Touching History: Stonewall 50, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs (2019–2020); Through Positive Eyes, Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles (2019); Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A., a partnership between Museum of Contemporary Art and the Getty Museum’s Pacific Standard Time:LA/LA at the Pacific Design Center and ONE Gallery, Los Angeles; and Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972–1987, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2011). His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; El Museo del Barrio, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts; and Art Institute of Chicago. His painting, Painted by Her Brother, 1983 is one of the lead promotional images for Made in LA: Acts of Living at Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024
Joey Terrill: Still Here, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills, CA
2023
Joey Terrill: Cut and Paste, Ortuzar Projects, New York, NY
2022
Joey Terrill: Self-Portraits, Clones, Icons, and Homages, 1980–1993, Park View / Paul Soto, Los Angeles, CA
2021
Once Upon A Time: Paintings, 1981–2015, Ortuzar Projects, New York, NY
2013
Just What is it That Makes Today’s Homos So Different, So Appealing?, ONE Gallery, West Hollywood, CA
Joey Terrill, Short North Gallery Columbus, OH
Worlds of Art (with Theresa Rojas), Ohio Union, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
1993
Chico Moderno, Norris Fine Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1991
Two Points of View (with Alex Donis), One Common Ground, Echo Park Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1985
Carl Schmidt / Joey Terrill, James Turcotte Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1984
Gronk & Joey, Score Bar, Los Angeles, CA
1982
Joey Terrill, A Different Light Bookstore, Los Angeles, CA
1981
Chicanos Invade New York, Windows on White Street, New York, NY
1980
Joey Terrill, A Different Light Bookstore, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Scientia Sexualis, The Institute for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
For Dear Life: Art, Medicine and Disability, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA
On the Edge: Los Angeles Art from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
2023
Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Between Us, Alexander Gray Associates, Germantown, NY
Together in Time: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Mapping an Art World: Los Angeles in the 1970s–80s, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2022
La Memo: Chicana/o Art From 1972–1989, La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Los Angeles, CA
When the Sun Loses Its Light, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
Rostro, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
We Are Close In Distance, USC Roski Graduate Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2021
ESTAMOS BIEN: La Trienal 20/21, El Museo Del Barrio, New York, NY
2019
5th SUR:biennial, Long Beach City College Art Gallery, Long Beach, CA
Touching History: Stonewall 50, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA
Through Positive Eyes, Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
2017
Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A., Museum of Contemporary Art at Pacific Design Center and ONE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Exhibition traveled to Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH; Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV; Vicki Myhren Gallery, University of Denver, Denver, CO; Hunter College Art Galleries, New York, NY.
iMirame! Expressions of Queer Latinx Art, La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Los Angeles, CA
Queer Califas, Long Hall, Plummer Park, Los Angeles, CA
Queerly Tehuantin, Galeria de La Raza, San Francisco, CA
Remembrance Quarter Gallery, Regis Art Center East, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Chapters: Book Art in Southern California, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2016
Drama Queer: Seducing Social Change, Queer Arts Festival, Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre, Vancouver, BC
Queer Biennial II–Yooth: Loss & Found, Industry Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2015
Art, AIDS, America, ONE Gallery and the West Hollywood Library, Los Angeles, CA; Exhibition traveled to Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY; Alphawood Gallery, Chicago, IL
2011
ASCO: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972–1987, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
2004
MOCA Staff Show, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
2000
Los Angels, El Pueblo Gallery / Olvera Street, Los Angeles, CA
1999
Santa Fe Art Colony Artists at The Brewery, I-5 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1998
The DADA Show, Downtown Arts Development Association, Los Angeles, CA
Dia de Los Muertos, The Advocate Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1996
Heterogeneous, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN Downtown Lives!, Downtown Arts Development Association, Los Angeles, CA
1995
TranscEND AIDS, Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, Los Angeles, CA
Outfest ’95, Directors Guild of America, Los Angeles, CA
1994
Homeboy Beautiful: the ‘zine Scream, Resolution Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Passion and Protest, VIVA! at Beyond Baroque, Los Angeles, CA
1993
In the Public Eye, Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), Los Angeles, CA
Joteria: Nationality and Sexuality, DaVinci Art Gallery, Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles, CA
1991
Pasion por Frida, Museo Estudio Diego Rivera, Mexico City, Mexico; Exhibition traveled to The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA; Brooklyn Museum Brooklyn, New York, NY.
Cantos de Esta Tierra, Wild Blue Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Contemporary Visions of the Virgen de Guadalupe, Downey Museum of Art, Downey, CA
VIVA’s Mexico: Too Many Centuries of Denial, Invisibility and Silence, Beyond Baroque, Venice, CA
Images of Hope/Imagenes de Ezperanza, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
1990
Celebracion Dia de Los Muertos, Echo Park Gallery Los Angeles, CA
1989
Silent Echoes, Ventura College Art Gallery, Ventura, CA
Summer Group Show, Williams/Lamb Gallery, Long Beach, CA
1987
Grandeur of the Everyday, Ariel Gallery, New York, NY
A Separate Peace, Gallery 69A, Worcester, MA
Men’s Summer Show, Michael Ivey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1986
Latin American Artists, Michael Ivey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1981
The Last Chicano Art Show, La Galeria, Santa Ana, CA
1979
Chicanos en el Pentágono, Centro Proceso Pentágono, Mexico City, Mexico
1978
Annual Downtown Artists Show, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Los Angeles, CA
1976
iNo Mas Los Dieron Tres Dias!, California State University, Long Beach, CA
1975
iEscandalosas!, Hazard Gallery East, Los Angeles, CA
Public Collections
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
A conversation with artist Joey Terrill in his studio on the occasion of the opening of Joey Terrill: Still Here at Marc Selwyn Fine Art.
Joey Terrill’s Windows Into Queer Chicano Life “I want my work to have a confessional nature about my life, my identity, and who I am,” the artist said in an interview with Hyperallergic. This article is part of Hyperallergic’s 2024 Pride Month series, featuring interviews with art-world queer and trans elders throughout June.
William Moreno reviews Joey Terrill: Still Here.
Art critic David S. Rubin reviews Joey Terrill: Still Here in Hyperallergic.
A profile of artist Joey Terrill featured in the Los Angeles Times by Carolina A. Miranda
Joey Terrill: Still Here featured in Hyperalleric's "10 Shows to See in Los Angeles This February," by Matt Stromberg
