stay, take your time, my love
David Antonio Cruz
Opening reception Thursday, May 15th.
Opening May 2025 is stay, take your time, my love, site-specific solo exhibition by David Antonio Cruz, including newly commissioned paintings and drawings created in response to the queer histories of San Francisco. Visitors will experience select works from Cruz’s chosenfamily series in an intimate, tactile space, mirroring the plush interiors of his compositions. The exhibition celebrates the power of non-biological bonds between queer, trans, and genderfluid people, particularly communities of color. Figures in Cruz’s group portraits lounge together in loving, nonhierarchical arrangements, defying the heteropatriarchy of traditional European and American colonial portraiture.
In the face of discriminatory policies and rising violence around the nation, Cruz’s new paintings will act as a “love letter” to the Bay Area queer community—uplifting local figures and capturing intimate moments of touch, support, and empowerment. His intricately detailed work will layer references to art history, the handkerchief code, leather culture, and iconic sites around the San Francisco landscape.
“Chosen family are the folks that love you undeniably, unconditionally. They don’t come with restrictions or rules. This is our safety net, this is how we create home.”
—David Antonio Cruz for The Guardian, 2023
Date
May 16–December 7, 2025
DAVID ANTONIO CRUZ Artist Website & Instagram
Cover image: Detail of thesecretofremainingyoung isnevertohaveanemotion,thatisunbecoming; thosebarriokids, 2022. Collection of Green Family Art Foundation. Image courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery.
David Antonio Cruz, thefogwillrise,theclaydry,andallcoveredindew.ButI'llseeyouwhenthesun sets_causewehavelivingghosts., 2024. Ink, flashe, and wax pencil on watercolor paper. 77 ¼ x 56 5/8 in (framed), 72 x 52 in (unframed). Image courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery.
David Antonio Cruz, ilovedeveryoneofthem, 2022. Oil, acrylic, and ink on wood panel. 72 x 60 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery.
David Antonio Cruz, canyoustaywithmetonight_causeyouarehere,youarehere,andweareherewithyou, 2021. Oil and latex on wood panel. 72 x 48 in. (each panel), 72 x 96 in. (overall). Image courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery.
David Antonio Cruz (b. 1974, Philadelphia, PA) explores the intersectionality of queerness and race through painting, sculpture, and performance.
Cruz received his BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute, NY, and his MFA from Yale University, CT. He attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and completed the AIM Program at the Bronx Museum, New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art, New York, NY (2024); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA (2023); Galleria Poggiali, Florence, IT (2023); and moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL (2024, 2021, 2019). Group exhibitions include the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS; Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA (2023); DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum for the New England Triennial, Lincoln, MA (2022); The Block Museum at Northwestern, Evanston, IL (2022); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2022); Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA (2022); Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (2019); Ford Foundation, New York, NY (2019); McNay Museum, San Antonio, TX (2019); and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. (2019). Forthcoming solo exhibitions include Halsey Institute of Fine Art, Charleston, SC (2025); Wave Hill Museum, Bronx, NY (2025); and ICA San Francisco (2025). Cruz is a 2024 Outwin Boochever National Portrait Competition prize winner.
His work is in the collections of the Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ; El Museo Del Barrio, New York, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; 21c Museum Hotels, Louisville, KY; Pierce & Hill Harper Arts Foundation, Detroit, MI; Tufts University, Medford, MA; The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK; and Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX. Recent residencies and fellowships include Joan Mitchell Artist-in-Residence, New Orleans, LA (2025); Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO (2024); Villa Bergerie Art Residency, Laguarres, Spain (2023); the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Award (2018); Neubauer Faculty Fellowship, Tufts University, Boston (2018); BRIC Workspace Residency, Brooklyn (2018); Gateway Project Spaces, Newark, NJ (2016); and the LMCC Workspace Residency, New York (2015). Cruz lives and works in New York City, where he is the Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at Columbia University, and is represented by Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.