WILLIAM WAY LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER
presents

ARLEEN OLSHAN
THE TANGLE I'VE
GOTTEN INTO

JAN 16 - FEB 21, 2026
Opening Reception Fri Jan 16, 6-9pm

William Way LGBT Community Center is proud to announce its upcoming art exhibition, Arleen Olshan: The Tangle I’ve Gotten Into, opening January 16 (6-9pm), hosted by iMPeRFeCT Gallery. On view through February 21, the free exhibition features deeply personal drawings, paintings, and photographs by artist, activist, and William Way co-founder Arleen Olshan. Olshan’s role in organizing the William Way LGBT Community Center’s first art exhibition in 1976 makes the exhibition a particularly fitting opening to the Center’s year-long 50th-anniversary celebrations in 2026.

The exhibition brings together two interconnected bodies of work. Dead Dykes & Some Gay Men features drawings, paintings, and photographs that honor LGBTQ+ activists, colleagues, friends, artists, authors, and lovers whom Olshan knew and has since lost. Rooted in a decades-long commitment to memorializing queer lives, the series draws from Olshan’s personal archives alongside materials preserved in the John J. Wilcox Jr. Archives at the William Way LGBT Community Center. Olshan first conceived the project more than 30 years ago, in the mid-1990s, when a close friend, Gil Forman, then dying from complications related to HIV/AIDS, asked her to paint a portrait of him and his partner, Zach, after his passing. Completed in 2024, that original painting became the catalyst for an expanded series now comprising more than a dozen portraits.

Each work is rendered with remarkable tenderness, bearing witness to the deep ties of care, memory, and community that have defined Olshan’s life and activism. The project is supported by an artist grant from the Velocity Fund and an Art and Change Grant from the Leeway Foundation.

“Dead Dykes & Some Gay Men remembers and celebrates the lives of LGBTQ+ ancestors and their contributions. The project feels like one enormously entwined self-portrait. To paint and document their lives is to paint and document my own — my activism and theirs is interconnected.”  Arleen Olshan

Presented alongside the memorial series is Women Loving Women, a companion exhibition featuring Olshan’s work from the 1970s and 1980s. The large-scale, figurative paintings and drawings, many created during her time as a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and exhibited at the William Way in the 1970s, capture the intimacy, eroticism, solidarity, and liberation of lesbian feminist communities during a transformative period in American queer history.

“As we reflect on William Way’s founding in 1976, the year of the U.S. Bicentennial, it is also vital to acknowledge the Gay Liberation Movement and honor people like Arleen, who played integral roles in catalyzing change. This exhibition’s pairing of Olshan’s early work with her current portraits invites our community to remember, reflect, and feel empowered as we navigate similarly challenging times.” - Jake Foster, Curator and Art Exhibitions Manager at William Way.

ARLEEN OLSHAN is a visual artist, graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and hand crafter of custom leather accessories. She has been active in the LGBTQA+ and Feminist Communities for over 50 years trailblazing the way forward. Beginning in the late 1960s, Arleen worked with Radicalesbians and the Gay Activist Alliance. She was co-coordinator of the original Gay Community Center (now William Way LGBT Community Center). From 1976 – 1986 she was the co-owner of Giovanni’s Room in Philadelphia, the oldest LGBTQIA+ and Feminist bookstore in the country. Arleen was a case manager for We the People Living with HIV/AIDS helping with housing and daily living issues, and an Addictions Counselor at Thomas Jefferson Hospital for women in recovery. Arleen was the co-founder of Mt. Airy Art Garage where she served as Treasurer and Executive Director for over 14 years. Learn more about Arleen on her website: arleenolshan.com

●  Press & Collectors Preview: Friday, January 16, from 4 to 6 p.m.

●  Opening Reception: Friday, January 16 from 6 to 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. RSVP here.

●  Artist Talk: Friday, January 30, from 6 to 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. RSVP here (limited space available).

• ●  Gallery Hours and Tours:

    ○ iMPeRFeCT Gallery is open to the public on Friday and Saturday, between 12 and 5 p.m.

  ○  Free curator’s tours can be scheduled for groups on Fridays by contacting arts@waygay.org (limited availability, please reserve a week in advance).

About William Way LGBT Community Center:

The William Way LGBT Community Center has served the LGBTQIA+ community of Philadelphia and its allies since 1976. From social groups, networking events, and counseling and support services to art exhibitions and cultural experiences, the Center consistently strives to provide new and innovative programs for the LGBTQIA+ communities throughout Greater Philadelphia. Visit www.waygay.org.