Fire Island Artist Residency: Benefit Auction 2024

Curated by Art Collectors Rob & Eric Thomas-Suwall

Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR), the first LGBTQ artist residency in the world, will present its 14th season this July on Fire Island. FIAR past artists in residence contributing works to the auction include: Marcel Alcalá, Paolo Arao, Travis Boyer, Elijah Burgher, Edie Fake, Moises Salazar, Devan Shimoyama and Willa Wasserman. Artists from Rob & Eric Thomas-Suwall’s collection include Sara Anstis, Chris Bogia (FIAR Co-Founder), Deborah Brown, Michael Childress, Corydon Cowansage, Hein Koh, Molly Greene, Anthony Iacono, Ernesto Renda, Erin M. Riley, Richard Tinkler, and Robin Francis Williams. Other artists generously contributing works to the auction include Alex Anderson, Jeffrey Gibson, Anthony Goicolea, Cielo Félix-Hernández, Elizabeth Glaessner, Zachari Logan, Logan Sibel, and Lily Wong.

FIAR Executive Director Jeremy Steinke noted that, “The generosity of Rob and Eric and of all the artists, both from FIAR and from their collection, so graciously contributing works to this watershed moment bolsters us and is a testament to the power and care of the entire community that surrounds our organization. We are so grateful.”

“This auction is the celebration of so many queer artists, allies, and galleries coming together to support and celebrate everything that makes FIAR such a wonderfully important organization,” explained Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall.

ABOUT Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall

Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall are contemporary art collectors based in North Dakota with a collection focused on emerging female identifying and queer artists. As a surgeon and political philosopher, they were both avid followers of science and culture; but ended up expanding that interest to contemporary art after visiting a David Hockney retrospective on a trip to San Francisco. Since then, they have discovered a passion as a couple for collecting emerging art that explores social realities that are often unacknowledged or obscured by existing norms. Through their social media presence (@theicygays) as well as well as frequent art excursions, they have been able to form meaningful relationships with like-minded artists, gallerists and curators to create a playful, contemporary collection. Over the past several years, they have started supporting institutions whose aims and goals coincide with their vision. They were introduced to The Fire Island Artist Residency through a studio visit with Chris Bogia and joined the board of FIAR several years ago. The exhibition “FULL DISCLOSURE: Selections from the Thomas-Suwall Collection” will open this April at Plains Art Museum in Fargo, ND.

ABOUT Fire Island Artist Residency

Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR) is a non-profit organization founded in 2011 which brings lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, intersex and queer identifying emerging visual artists to Fire Island— a place long-steeped in LGBTQ history— to create, commune, rest, reflect and contribute to the location's rich artistic history.

Each summer FIAR provides free live/work space to visual artists who work, socialize, and immerse themselves in the Fire Island community for four weeks, during which time they are visited by renowned artists and scholars, who interact with residents through intimate studio visits, dinners, and discussions, providing support and feedback. The greater Fire Island community, as well as visitors from New York City and Long Island, are invited to attend free public programs by these esteemed guests. This has been made possible through a partnership with the Arts Project of Cherry Grove, who invites FIAR to hold our programming in the Cherry Grove Community House, a landmarked LGBTQ historic site.

In this way, FIAR hopes to bring both new creative perspectives and prestigious art professionals together in this extraordinary location to foster the creation—and preservation—of queer art-making in contemporary art, creative writing and scholarship.

Every year FIAR makes an open call for LGBTQ emerging visual artists to apply for the residency. In recent years nearly 700 artists have applied for the six spots available each summer for artists in residence. The artists are selected by a small jury of art world leaders. In addition, in 2022 FIAR launched the scholar in residence program, in which each year a jury of scholars appoints one queer scholar to join the cohort of visual artists.

FIAR’s visiting artists have included: Abigail DeVille, Annie Sprinkle, Chitra Ganesh, Derrick Adams, Doron Langberg, Jeffrey Gibson, Jim Hodges, Joel Otterson, Lyle Ashton Harris, Rashaad Newsome, Raúl de Nieves, Tom Burr, Tony Feher, Zachary Drucker, among many others.

Bidding will be open exclusively on Artsy and will close at 12pm EDT on March 28, 2024..

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