Sarah Bastress: The ugliest dyke in the hole-fucking world

November 7 - December 12, 2026

Opening Reception

Saturday, November 7, 2026 6-9pm

Sarah Bastress is a dyke and painter from West Virginia who lives and works in Chicago. She also lives in resolute silliness with her raccoon cat, wise toddler, and hot wife.

The titular piece in this show, The ugliest dyke in the hole-fucking world is a love letter sloppily playing dress-up as a book, dedicated to all the ugly dykes out there making lives and families of all kinds and staying alive. It is also for Agnes, my cat and soulmate who died a cruel death. It is also for my daughter Henrietta who could make all skeptics believe in magic, and for whom I never want my existence to put at risk, though I fear it may all the time. It is also for Ruth, who makes good things feel possible. It is also intentionally confrontational to the academic lobotomizing and pinkwashing the term queer has undergone. I am for keeping dyke a slur and you keeping it the fuck out of your mouth and institution. If it is not your word, I hope you choke a little as you say the title (if you try to say it at all). The paintings probably function similarly. 

A lot of the work was born out of the wave of pure love and terror caring for a creature new to this world can bring. The world is not kind, but a case must be made to be in it, for us as individuals, and for those we love. It is important to remember that spiderwebs are true and perfect miracles we can see anytime we look in the corner of our shower. May we all continue to be illegible, incorrect, and disgusting, and may the dear youth revel playing in the remnants of the filthy sludge we leave in our wake, find pretty rocks in the gunk and show them to us so we can be reminded that beauty exists.

You can’t kill us all.