The many influences behind BEACONS
I am emerging from three months of intensive, focused work on BEACONS, my first solo exhibition which opened last week at Queer Arts Featured. Check out last month’s newsletter to find out more! It feels like coming back from another world, and I’m catching up on everything I’ve been putting off and starting to look ahead again.
Read on for a deep look into the influences that came together to create a solo exhibition highlighting the neon of San Francisco, an opportunity to commission me for a New York City piece, and, as always, a new photo of my cat, Ruby.
The opening of BEACONS was spectacular. When we planned it, we didn’t know that our opening would take place not near the re-opening of the Castro Theater, but on the very same night. The gallery was bustling with visitors all evening, and so many friends, fellow artists, and art lovers came through. I met everyone from local business owners to actual neon tube benders!
The festivities are far from over! BEACONS will be open through March 29th and there are plenty of events at Queer Arts Featured as well as regular open hours, Thursday through Saturday 12pm-7pm and Sunday 12pm-6pm, in which to view the exhibition. I am most excited for Neon Comes Out, a presentation by Jim Van Buskirk, with Al Barna and Randall Ann Homan of SF Neon.
An illuminating talk on SF gay bars going above ground with neon! Gay bars were often hidden, unmarked enclaves for only those in the know. Often veiled behind tinted glass, with narrow entrances to allow doormen to screen patrons, they needed to hide the goings-on within from the general public, and the police, as a matter of survival. In the late 1960s they started coming out of the dark, announcing themselves with neon signs. These photographs, chiefly by Henri Leleu (from the GLBT Historical Society Archives) capture a dawning of San Francisco’s gay bars and clubs, circa 1960s-1970s.
This event is almost sold out, so check out what other events they have coming up!
Details are still coming together, but we are also planning something special to take place at 8pm, directly after the next Castro Art Walk, which will be on Friday, March 6th. That’ll be a fun time to swing by the gallery and find out what we will be up to!
Discussions with visitors in the gallery caused me to reflect on all the different things that came together to define BEACONS, and I surprised myself by connecting more and more seemingly disparate influences. My gallery work before this is primarily small, plein air paintings in gouache. Kind of the opposite of large, acrylic nocturnes painted in the studio. Last month I shared my reading list as I've been working on BEACONS, but that was all after I had conceived of and began work on the series.
Devlin Shand, the curator at Queer Arts Featured, while interviewing me for the Bay Times, made the connection between the subject matter of signage and my career in theater. Before I considered myself a fine artist, I was building a career towards being a scenic designer, with model building, prop work, and a lot of scenic paint along the way. In fact, my senior scenic design project in college involved signage rendered in perspective, something I didn't consciously think about until the conversation with Devlin.
You can grab a physical copy of the Bay Times at locations around the Castro, or read the article here!
My interest in signage came back for me in 2024, when I took a sign painting class at the United States Institute of Theater Technology conference. Later that year, I helped Neil G. Ballard restore the Beep's Burgers sign.
That fall, I met Suze Riley during the Sanchez Art Center 50|50 show opening, and she invited me to participate in an exhibit about signage that she was curating, called Vacancy. She recognized a theme in my work that I hadn't yet. I took note of Suze's beautiful papercut renderings of vintage neon signs.
In June of 2025, Christopher Tradowsky's Midnight at the Cinema Palace was released, and for a reading and drag show at Chartreuse by Roje, I painted the Castro Theater Blade sign large and in acrylic for the first time, as well as two different approaches of The Roxie. One of which, "Roxie Under" is part of BEACONS. I also started trying more nocturnes Plein Air, to capture movie theaters such as the Vogue in person.
One last element was almost pure chance. I work at ARCH Supplies and was asked by my manager to test some canvases for comparison as we brought new brands into the store. Just trying to think of something I wanted to paint to try them out, I turned to neon bar signs, specifically the 500 Club and Doc's Clock. The latter is also part of BEACONS.
A mere three months ago, my partner, Sean Owens, saw all this and declared that I should do a whole series of them to coincide with the Castro Theater reopening. Of course, that couldn't happen anywhere else but Queer Arts Featured and, even though the paintings didn't exist yet, Devlin and Rosie believed in me and made it real.
Connecting with people at the opening about queer history, neon sign history, and community was amazing. It’s so satisfying to see all my hard work up in the gallery and to see people enjoying it.
Now that I can think ahead, I’m looking forward to visiting New York City again in April! I’ve had two amazing visits, teaching workshops, sketching, and painting. My previous trips were made richer by commissions that took me to parts of the city I otherwise wouldn’t have seen, and giving them context with beautiful, personal stories.
Regular commissions are closed for now, due to a long wait list, but I am opening up a few slots just for NYC. Reach out if you have a special place there that you’d like me to capture in person, either as a plein air gouache painting or as a sketch. I am only accepting three commissions for this trip, first come first served, and you’re getting the first chance as readers of my newsletter! Respond directly to this email if you are interested, or email me at nathaniel@njbice.com.
Thanks for reading! As a reward, here is a picture of Ruby.
While you await the next newsletter, you can check out my website to see my portfolio!
Stay tuned for next month, and let me know what you’d like to hear about in the newsletter in the future by responding directly to this email or reaching out at nathaniel@njbice.com.
-Nathaniel J. Bice
he/him
