Arlington artist Thomas Massaqoui has always considered himself a documentarian.
He started by taking photos on a film camera before he picked up a camcorder and taped his everyday life.
Now, with his digital camera in hand, he wants to capture people exactly as they are in a moment.
Massaqoui, who has been creating art since the late 1990s, is featured in the Pride Juried Exhibit in the Arlington Museum of Art. The exhibit includes 34 artists from across the nation, with pieces ranging in style from photos and oil paintings to a video installation and a piece with laser-cut paper and arrows.
“My goal as a creative is to try and give all my subjects that picture that they can say, ‘That was me,’” Massaqoui said.
If you go
What: 2025 Annual PRIDE Juried Exhibition
When: June 6-July 6
Where: 1200 Ballpark Way, Arlington
Admission: Free
Massaqoui’s inclusion meant a lot to him, as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, a University of Texas at Arlington graduate and a south Arlington resident.
“I think it’s a great honor for the fact that I am able to represent my city along with artists in the region and across the globe,” Massaqoui said.
Massaqoui has two photos in the exhibit. Both are focused on a group he likened to the Club Kids, a famous movement among the youth in New York City in the 1990s.
One photo is in color and includes two members of the group sitting together on a couch. The other is in black and white and shows a bird’s eye shot of two people on stairs.
“They’re just unapologetic,” Massaqoui said. “Whether they were in their community at large or in the general populace, they were always going to be who they were, and I wanted to share that with the world.”
Kendall Quirk, the director of exhibitions for the museum, said the range of where artists are from and their pieces is a natural extension of art.
“I think that this goes to show the diversity of those who submitted,” Quirk said. “We didn’t task them with anything specifically. We really wanted them to feel like they had free rein to really select work.”
The exhibit holds a special place for Quirk. She hopes the exhibit grows into an annual event. On top of that, it is also the first where the museum picked a juror.
“We had more of a say in the exhibition, which is a new experience for us, but an exciting one,” Quirk said.
The exhibit is a collaboration between the museum and the HELP Center for LGBT Health and Wellness. Each organization picked a juror with whom they had a relationship to sift through the submissions.
The exhibit has been in the works since 2023, and the plan is to keep it as a continuous project between the Help Center and the museum, Quirk said.
“As long as the HELP Center does Arlington Pride and exists as the HELP Center, we’re going to continue to do the Pride exhibition,” Quirk said.
Chris Moss is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at chris.moss@fortworthreport.org.
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