June 5-14, 2026 – Larry Tee: “The Birthplace of Contemporary Mainstream Drag”

One Institute is proud to present The Birthplace of Contemporary Mainstream Drag, curated by songwriter, DJ, and queer historian Larry Tee at One Gallery in West Hollywood.

This exhibition traces one of the most overlooked genealogies of contemporary drag culture: the network of performers, musicians, filmmakers, club kids, and cultural agitators orbiting Atlanta’s underground performance scene in the late 1970s and 1980s. Long before drag became a global industry through shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, POSE, Dragula, and Legendary, these artists were constructing a new language of gender performance from punk, camp, and performance art.

See selections from Larry Tee’s archive that highlight drag as a collaborative ecosystem — one built through friendship, nightlife, improvisation, public-access television, underground music, regional queer scenes, and communities determined to invent themselves in public.

The exhibition and artist talk are free and open to the public.

Image credit: Photograph by Jon Witherspoon.