Christian Rogers at NOON Projects

Christian Rogers, Heaven on Earth (installation view) (2023). Image courtesy of the artist and NOON Projects. Photo: Ruben Diaz.

In Heaven on Earth, Christian Rogers removes the glass barrier that often mediates queer erotica accessed from laptops and mobile devices, instead privileging a richly painted and textured surface. Sourcing images from his collection of vintage gay porn magazines (which predate the HIV/AIDS epidemic), Rogers embeds cutouts of nude men in steamy positions within lush and playfully lusty paintings and drawings. Sprouting between technicolor flowerscapes and celestial blooms, his figures roam a sumptuous paradise that stretches from an Edenic plane to a utopia beyond the clouds. These idyllic sites celebrate queer pleasure while manifesting dreams for a present and future marked by safety and joy.

Rogers’ paintings feature sprawling blooms with brightly pigmented petals and variegated leaves that span the rainbow. The florals spread over the expanse of the canvases, each of which is complete with a sculpted paper pulp frame. Some works, like Hot Shots Vol. 2 (2023), also incorporate this pulp into 3-dimensional protrusions that break the surface like mountain peaks on a topographic map, or, more fitting here, the cheeky display of a porn star’s bulge. If you look closely, all of the paintings feature tiny collaged hunks in all of their glory, scattered amidst the flora like sexed-up sprites.

In Full Grown / Full Blown (2023), about a dozen men fill the edges of the painting, surrounding a massive tulip and mandala-like swirls. On the bottom right, a bodybuilder flexes his bicep. Above him, a model pouts while pulling his tank aside to reveal a burly pec. The photographs are worked into the neon green background, all basked in a thick layer of glowing green paint, unifying and highlighting their presence while camouflaging them into the work. For Rogers, the collages serve as a way of remembering the queer men who preceded him, many of whom were likely lost during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis. He celebrates their legacies by placing them within psychedelic landscapes of perpetual bliss.

Rogers’ graphite drawings embrace this celestial spin, marked by greyscale shading that invokes the galactic aura of deep space. In Untitled (Morning Glory) (2023), the titular flower engulfs the foreground, while magazine clippings of aroused and bent-over men are arranged around the canvas like stickers on a binder. Against the drawing’s black background, the washed-out quality of the porn cuttings makes them look like bright stars against a darkened sky, memorializing the men in some euphoric, otherworldly realm. Here, they live out their fantasies of pleasure without fear or concern of illness, persecution, or other earthly repercussions.

In the gallery’s back room, a grid of framed Polaroids offers a more intimate, zoomed-in version of the paintings and drawings. Each is a dick pic of Rogers’ friends and lovers layered with cactus blooms from his garden using a multiple exposure technique. The superimposition creates a hazy, milky effect, as the soft oranges and pinks merge with the flesh tones of his subjects. Across these works and others, Rogers imagines serene havens that double as tributes to his queer elders and their ecstasies.

Christian Rogers: Heaven on Earth runs from September 15–October 21, 2023 at NOON Projects (951 Chung King Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90012).

Christian Rogers, Heaven on Earth (installation view) (2023). Image courtesy of the artist and NOON Projects. Photo: Ruben Diaz.

Christian Rogers, Full Grown / Full Blown (2023). Acrylic, paper pulp, and collage on canvas in artist‘s frame, 45 x 35 inches. Photo: Ruben Diaz.

Image courtesy of the artist and NOON Projects. Photo: Ruben Diaz.

Christian Rogers, Heaven on Earth (installation view) (2023). Image courtesy of the artist and NOON Projects. Photo: Ruben Diaz.

Christian Rogers, Untitled 2 (2023). Polaroid photograph, 4.25 x 3.5 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and NOON Projects. Photo: Ruben Diaz.

Christian Rogers, Untitled (Sunflower) (2023). Graphite and collage on paper, 17.25 x 15.25 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and NOON Projects. Photo: Ruben Diaz.

Neyat Yohannes is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in Criterion’s Current, Mubi Notebook, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Bitch, KQED Arts, cléo journal, Playboy, and Chicago Review of Books, among other publications. In a past life, she wrote tardy slips for late students.

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