Curator Walkthrough with Alexis Bard Johnson

Meet Alexis Bard Johnson, curator of Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation, as she walks us through the exhibition to explore the captivating LGBTQ+ history within the world of science fiction fandom and occult in Los Angeles from the late 1930s to the 1960s. Learn about the lives and work of the pioneering writers, publishers, artists, and early sci-fi enthusiasts who paved the way for the LGBTQ+ movement.

About the exhibition:
Sci-fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation, is a PST ART: Art & Science Collide exhibition organized by ONE Archives and on view at the USC Fisher Museum through March 15. The exhibition focuses the overlapping science fiction, occult, and LGBT communities of Los Angeles from the late 1930s through 1960s, including progressive organizations like the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, Ordo Templi Orientis, and ONE Incorporated. The exhibition reveals how artists, writers, scientists, and occultists together created a world of their own making through films, photographs, music, illustrations, costumes, and writing.

About the curator:
Alexis Bard Johnson is the Curator at the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries. She oversees the exhibitions, programs, and art collections at one of the largest repositories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer materials in the world. She recently curated Looking for Lesbians and Archival Intimacies: Queering South/East Asian Diasporas. Previously, she curated Six (Linear) Feet and the online exhibition Safer at Home. She is currently working on Sexual Science and the Imagi-nation, one of the exhibitions in the Getty’s 2024 Pacific Standard Time, and Queer Black California: Art and Politics with the California African American Museum. Johnson earned her PhD in Art History with a minor in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Stanford University in 2019. Her essay, “The Work of Being Sexed: Andy Warhol on Drag,” appeared in Contact Warhol: Photography Without End (MIT, 2018). She also contributed to the revised edition of Art and Queer Culture (Phaidon, 2019). Before joining the ONE Archives, Johnson worked at the Princeton Art Museum, the Whitney Museum, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

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Women, Surrealism, and the Occult in Los Angeles
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