Suburban Gay Dynamite Duo Tim & Richard Collect Awesome Art

This past Sunday I delivered an artwork by Paul Mpagi Sepuya from our K48 benefit to the home of Timothy Peterson and Richard Gerrig in Suffolk County. Tim and Richard starting collecting art around twenty years ago. They live in a beautiful middle class 1960s American cookie cutter home out on Long Island. Richard is a professor of psychology and Tim markets pharmaceuticals. Both met at Yale and fell in love over mutual interests — one being a passion for contemporary art. Together they have amassed a modest yet very impressive personal collection of gay and lesbian art by many who are friends (including work by the worlds ugliest drag queen) that spans from Warhol to Hug :) not to mention a few radical heterosexual artists as well. What I witnessed was only about 1/5 of what they actually own. What you will see below is a very very small sample of some of my favorite pieces in their collection. I was like a kid in a candy store drooling over their prized possessions. I didn't want to give too much away in my post just in case you are lucky enough to go out to their place and see for yourself! They work hard for their money — they are not loaded — they are spend thrift in every since of the word.. they find things on eBay, at benefit auctions, in the fields of Connecticut — being at the right place at the right time and it proves that if your heart is in the right spot — you too can master the art of collecting without having the market dictate what you should buy. I was told that if every piece of their collection was sold, they might be able to afford one Richard Prince or one Cindy Sherman. But, I'd rather have this!


This 1960s suburban home model in a bubble is like the kind of house that Tim and Richard bought. 40 to 50 years ago, a straight couple would go to the architect and pick out the home that they liked the best out of about 3 to 4 variations in a range of fashionable colors. T and R's home is in the section of street names that start with the letter M. The lower the letter in the alphabet, the smaller the home, while the larger homes would be closer to the end of the alphabet — like Willow Street for example.


The cool thing about T and R's home is that they didn't change a thing when they moved in! All of the wallpaper, wood paneling, carpet, etc is original! In the upper right hand corner you will see a work by Man Ray. The large piece in the middle is by one of my favorite artists ever, David Wojnarowicz.


Their front hallway has some gems like this early Andy Warhol drawing back from when he was still winning advertising awards.


This is an early awesome collage by my friend, Scott Treleaven.


Richard commissioned the artist Cary Leibowitz aka Candyass (another one of my favorites!) if he could make a piece for Tim's 40th birthday. This is what Cary made — it's called, Tim Cruising 1977 and is not actually Tim (I'm not even sure if Tim is Jewish)! Plus, he made it an edition and gave all 40 to Richard! Both T and R love humor and you will see a lot of it in their collection.


Okay, this is probably one of my all time favorites! by David Wojnarowicz


Another awesome Candyass and a beauty by Jack Pierson


I'm sooo jealous — I want a MAPPLETHORPE Polaroid!!


I got one of these ;) by Paul P. But, I don't have a stuffed Warhol :P


So, this is like one of Andy's very first silkscreens! T and R got it off of Candyass when he was having a fire sale!!! Cary put it in that frame!!


Umm, they have this A-M-A-Z-I-N-G collection of porcelain Lenins that they found in the fields of Connecticut!! From every stage of his life! The most beautiful one is not pictured here.. you got to see it for yourself in person.


√ i still can't believe how great everything is.


An early Nan Goldin hangs on their wall of drag queens..


This Marlene Dietrich by Yasumasa Morimura is hilarious!


This is a portrait of the world's ugliest drag queen, Jerome Caja (1993) by Catherine Opie. Jerome was an awesome artist who painted in nail polish.


T and R have a lot of G & G — this isn't even their best one (they have some recent handmade Gilbert & Georges) — but I like it a lot too and how it looks with these other objets d' art. Everything in their home is art — including their unique dinning room table which was used in a performance. The snake of cheap jeweled 25 cent rings on the floor is by James Jaxxa.


Adam Rolston made these rad Trojans boxes. The pizza slice is by Martin Kippenberger commissioned by Printed Matter and the cactus is by Taylor McKimens — both rad non gay artists. Claes Oldenburg made the pretzel.. was he gay?


This piece in the middle with the wolf stencil is a Wojnarowicz (1983). They found it on eBay from some dude in Florida who was instead of trying to go through a dealer or auction house ended up selling his 80s East Village street art himself — they got it for practically nothing — Are you kidding me?!! I LOVE the black boy with the little rabbit boy on his shoulder by John Bankston a gay African American artist.


"We — gay and lesbian artists — Bring Good Things to Life"


I'm totally freaking out that I'm part of all of this!


I love these tiny blue Jackies by Richard Pettibone.


This thing is by Louis Bourgeois.. it is part of a set of multiples that came in a box with a Nancy Spero painting on the lid with other awesome artists like Mike Kelley to help raise money for ACT UP. They took it out of the box so that I could feel it. She's the greatest dirty old lady in human history.


A SpongeBob SquarePants sculpture by Larry Mantello.


I want this gold tin-foil rat from the Pattern and Decoration movement artist, Tommy Lanigan Schmidt — he showed with Holly Solomon Gallery and was part of the original Stonewall riot.


LOVE this Robert Indiana design for a menu! Or as Batty would say: "eat poop love"


I remember seeing this word painting at P.P.O.W. by Martin Wong which says "Matt Dillon" in sign language. Supposedly Matt Dillon was a fan of his work so, he made this painting for him. I ♥ Matt Dillon too! T and R got it from his estate after his death.


I'm a fag..


and I want this lunch box by Nayland Blake — I'm getting inspired. Their home sorta reminds me of the Teenage Rebel Bedroom Show :)


OMG — this painting is an early Nicole Eisenman of a dysfunctional family.. The baby is obliterating his genitals!! lol


I love this painting by Bill Anthony which is based on a David Hockney. It reminds me of Beavis and Butt-head.


These cardboard pieces were part of a big recreation of Jackson Pollock's studio by Tom Burkhardt.


Their most recent acquisition is on it's way to them — an awesome Kehinde Wiley.


Back in the early 90s T and R got this ballpoint cock by Warhol for like a thousand bucks when no one wanted Andy.. he was making all these erotic drawings that he never showed while still a young designer. It was very avant garde in the 1950s to be making 'gay dick art'.


Miss General Idea 1971!


What? Ray Johnson! The collage on the left has an original letter from the curator of the Rockefeller collection to a friend of Ray's who wanted to build the world's largest Sculpture!


This Mickey was made by Gelatin from their Post-Xerox: The Tantamounter. They even made a Mickey cookie!


Another RAD Ray Johnson. You can actually get really cool Ray Johnson's for not a huge amount of money — he was very prolific.


Asian Punk Boy #1. AMAZING! I WANT!! Terence Koh is a terrific artist..


hahahahahoottt..


OMG — Ryan McGinley giving someone a blow job! Awesome!


A G.I. © skull banner — I WANT!!


and G.I. Patches!!


Thank you Tim & Richard for an awesome tour of your home and collection. I have over 2 hours of the tour voice recorded on my iphone but can't figure out how to download it! btw, I want an awesome boyfriend to go around and collect art with :)