Todd Stong's Queer Art History Investigations at Headstone Gallery

Todd Stong, an artist based in Philadelphia, presents his solo exhibition "This World May Never Change" at Headstone Gallery in Kingston, NY, through August 30, 2026. The show follows his ambitious installation at NADA New York 2026, curated by Anthony Elms, where Stong debuted a 22-foot-long, 10-foot-high polyptych titled "The Johann Winckelmann Sculpture Park (Murder and Executions)." That work, composed of 27 modular monoprints, explored the murders of art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann by his Italian lover and of Frederick the Great's young male lover, executed for sodomy. At Headstone, Stong presents intimate reliefs on burlap-reinforced plaster, four-panel monoprints, ceramic vessels, and small graphite drawings. Works like "Airborne" juxtapose Baroque ceiling illusions with antique sculptures such as the Laocoön, while "There Am I (Pantheon)" revisits memento mori traditions. Drawings depict a young boy studying Winckelmann, Frederick the Great, William Hogarth, and Raphael Mengs. The exhibition culminates in graphite pieces with the intimacy of love letters, including "Homemade Pasta" showing skeletons preparing a feast as two men kiss. Stong's research was conducted during a year in Rome sponsored by Philadelphia's Tyler School of Art.