Anglim Gilbert Gallery donates "Little Black Portrait" from Jerome's estate.

Now is your chance! If you ever wanted to own an original painting by Jerome Caja and support one of San Francisco's great independent arts organizations, then join in the online bidding (Paddle8: "Little Black Portrait" by Jerome Caja). This is a recent addition to the San Francisco Cinematheque's art auction and can be found on the Paddle8 website, which is currently accepting bids. The final sale will close during a silent auction this Saturday night, September 26th, at the Center for New Music in San Francisco.

Description, History, and Provenance

"Little Black Portrait" is a small black and white portrait of a man painted on a torn scrap of paper. The man appears in profile with his index finger pointing up. The piece was mounted  by Jerome himself under glass in a simple wood frame. It was part of Jerome's personal art collection that he kept in his home. After his death in November 1995, the Jerome Caja Estate consigned it to Gallery Paule Anglim, which is now called the Anglim Gilbert Gallery. The starting bid is set at $1,000, with an estimated value at $2,500. The beauty of this piece is in its tenderness. Jerome painted hundreds of tiny intimate portraits on paper or bottle-caps, some which were family and friends, and many were simply interesting faces. Rarely did he frame them like this one. The subject of this piece is unknown.

Lastly, Shannon Trimble, Manager of Anglim Gilbert Gallery, personally selected this piece for the auction. As he so eloquently puts it, "The man in this piece -- another of Jerome's many saints -- appears to be pointing towards heaven."


Paddle8 Online Bidding Now:
Jerome Caja painting "Little Black Portrait"

SILENT AUCTION SHOW & RECEPTION
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Starts at 7:00 pm

CENTER FOR NEW MUSIC
55 Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

TICKET INFORMATION
$20 general admission
$15 for Cinematheque members
Advance tickets available here.
Join our Facebook event.

by Anthony Cianciolo

Lewis Walden & Michael Blue set the stage for Jerome Caja!

During the late 80's and early 90's, Lewis and Michael were the hottest San Francisco DJ's and club promoters (Crystal Pistol & The EndUp). They were the creators of the infamous Club Chaos and Club Uranus.

Uranus happened every Sunday night at the End-Up and would attract a crowd that religiously lined up out the door and around the corner. It was church for the freaks: punks, activists, artists, trans-genders, and queers all reveling in an evening of misfit debauchery. This was the place to dance, cruise, hang out, and celebrate life. It was also the birthplace of the "Miss Uranus Pageant" and other performance spectacles. Jerome was its reigning queen. He would perform outrageous drag numbers in his signature spastic go-go style. Club Uranus was the epicenter of San Francisco’s underground counter-culture art at that time.

Back in December of 2014, shortly after publicly launching The Jerome Project website at a fundraiser art show at Gallery Paule Anglim, Lewis posted a lovely collection of his club flyers on Facebook. His posts inspired others to do the same. Here is a sample of those flyers. If you get a chance, scroll through his Facebook feed (FB: Lewis Walden). It is a trip down memory lane of 90’s San Francisco.

Thank you Lewis and everybody else for posting these historic queer club gems!

Thank you Mark Bowes & Michael Johnstone

Here is a fabulous slice of San Francisco queer counterculture history at its finest -- American High Heeled Wrestling between Rena McDonald (Adam Klein) and Jerome Caja! This infamous drag event was an ACT-UP benefit for Prevention Point at 1015 Folsom on Wednesday, January 24th, 1990. This event was also shot on VHS. I have a digitized copy of the taped event that is unfortunately not in great condition, but it might be the only record we have of it.

As far as I know, this is the only printed documentation of the event. If anybody knows of other coverage or has pictures from this event, please contact us. We would like to document what you have and add it to the digital catalogue raisonné. This is the type of rare documentation that we want to try to include in the documentary film.

Again, thank you Mark Bowes for saving and scanning this fabulous flyer, and a very special thank you to Michael Johnstone (Verasphere) for posting and sharing these INCREDIBLE B&W photos of the event. These are extremely rare images and we are thrilled that you were able to salvage your negatives and get good digital images of them.


Special Thank You Credits

Facebook: Mark Bowes
Facebook: Michael Stone
Facebook: Jerome Caja Shrine

by Anthony Cianciolo

Thank you Summer Jiang at StarLab China
   
In early September, StarLab Movie Studio from Guangzhou, China, interviewed me for two hours about Jerome Caja, his art, and the documentary film I am making about him. Summer Jiang conducted the interview at my home office where she could see the scope of the Jerome archives. We talked about what was involved in setting up The Jerome Project and my progress in producing the film. I am thrilled that a Chinese audience will now get a chance to know about Jerome.

Summer Jiang is a writer and photographer. She graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism, moved to Washington, D.C. and worked for NGOs and magazines such as the Washington Monthly. She is now an art student living in the Bay Area.

Thanks again Summer. It was an honor to participate, and I know that Jerome would have been tickled pink knowing that he is going to be featured in Chinese media. I will keep everyone posted when the interview is published on WeChat in November 2015.

LinkedIn Profile: Summer Jiang

by Anthony Cianciolo

Barbara Liu McDowell -- "3 Queens who inspire me to make the most out of this life!"

Thank you Barbara for all the lovely gifts you have given to The Jerome Project. This fabulous picture is being documented and preserved in the Jerome Caja Digital catalogue raisonné. These three great queens are San Francisco drag legends. They made us laugh during dark times in the late 80's early 90's. I also want to thank you for donating Jerome's childhood orange baseball jersey that was in Arturo's possession before he passed. It is people like you, Barbara, that remind me why I am making a documentary on Jerome. You love irreverent drag culture as an art form and you have dedicated your life to art!

Check out Barbara's Facebook page -- it is inspiring and loaded with great pictures!

Facebook: Barbara Liu McDowell
LinkedIn: Barbara Liu McDowell

by Anthony Cianciolo

His timing was perfect!

Thanks to Christopher, I was able to buy several state-of-the-art hard-drives to get all of my digital video files off of the BAVC servers and on to my creative desk. Again, thank you!

Photographing Beauty in San Francisco

Ric Warren has a fabulous collection of Jerome photographs that he kindly shared with all of us online at the Jerome Caja Shrine on FaceBook. The following photo series capture Jerome in broad daylight terrorizing and amusing the public. Ric and Jerome collaborated really well. The photos show Jerome in his signature clear plastic pants, in full regalia as a 50's housewife going about her day, and as a merry widow on her way to church.

Thank you Ric for sharing these priceless Jerome treasures. They are rare daytime images of him in drag.

I also want to thank him for donating some fabulous Jerome treasures (photos, a postcard flyer, and a CD of Jerome-inspired art by friends) to The Jerome Project repository. I have always loved this B&W photograph of Jerome on the toilet. I have seen this in several friend’s collections but did not have one for the repository until now.

Remember Jerome

Michael Johnstone took this photograph of Jerome and used it on all the promotional material for the Bucheon Gallery group art show, “Remember Jerome” that he also helped curate.

Lastly, the after-party at West of Pecos was a blast  because it was on Pink Saturday. The Dyke March passed right in front, and Daniel was back in San Francisco (even if it was for only a few days).

Website: Reel in the Closet

by Anthony Cianciolo

I also went to the sold-out book-signing event sponsored by Book Shop Santa Cruz at the Del Mar Theater. John Waters was hysterical live! He had a huge impact and influence on my becoming a filmmaker. As a queer kid growing up in Cleveland, Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble were life lines. I cannot tell you how nice it is to meet your childhood idol in person.

Thank you John Waters!

by Anthony Cianciolo

Lastly, a big thanks to Julie Blankenship of Visual Aid for inviting me to participate in this event. Julie has been a long-time supporter of Jerome Caja's work.

I hope to see you there. Cheers!

Julie Blankenship
Principal at Blankenship Consulting
Executive Director at Visual Aid
LinkedIn: Julie Blankenship