The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division is proud to present Wallpaper Saints: Photographs by Frank Mullaney.

“Wallpaper Saints was inspired by the holy prayer cards I collected during my Irish Catholic youth,” Mullaney writes. “As an altar boy, I used them to pray against the dawning awareness of my homosexuality. Yet the homoeroticism of the religious images only exacerbated my confusion, causing me to careen from shame to lust and back again. With this project, I’m photographing gay and trans men and women, as each is seemingly lost in a moment of transcendence. I’m working to reject the self-shaming associations I had with these religious images while simultaneously acknowledging their erotic charge. While each subject has a uniquely different background, chosen specifically for each person, the repetitive use of nudity puts everyone on equal footing, alone, vulnerable, and unprotected.”

Frank Mullaney grew up outside Boston and moved to New York the same week that Elvis died, and the Son of Sam was apprehended. His aesthetic he learned from watching Hammer Studios horror films as a child. Everything else he learned at the International Center of Photography. His work has been exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, Provincetown, Ft Collins, CO, the Catskills, and Mexico City. He divides his time between Manhattan and Livingston Manor, NY.

Wallpaper Saints: Photographs by Frank Mullaney will be on view from March 3 – May 29, 2022.

Opening reception on Thursday, March 3, 2022, 5-8 PM.

Download press release