The team of Shannon Amitin and Cabure Bonugli, with support from the LGBTQIA+ community and neighboring businesses, are launching a new queer-centering art space in San Francisco.
On March 7, the pair celebrates “The BIG Opening” of Rosebud Gallery on Larkin Street in Polk Gulch and the Tenderloin during the SF First Thursday Art Walk.
While co-owning a gallery is a new venture for them, they’re veterans when it comes to the city’s queer nightlife and events.
“Shannon and I have been running around in San Francisco for 15 years just being complete goofs,” jokes Bonugli.
About the conceptualization of a gallery, he says, “I needed a workspace—I was taking over my home with rug-making and photography—and he needed an office.”
Bonugli, a photographer specializing in portraits and backdrops and a tufted rug artist, and Amitin, the producer of T4T Worldwide and developer behind Fluid Cooperative Café and Jolene’s Bar, put a loosely formed plan into action.
“It started with, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could just hang out and be stupid and queer all the time?’ And then it sort of snowballed by looking at one space,” says Amitin.
The vacant space on Larkin Street was in a state of disrepair.
Says Amitin, “As most Tenderloin buildings are, it was disgusting and had sat empty for over two years. There were holes in the ceilings. But the vibe was right.”
That vibe corresponded to the area’s queer history and proliferation of queer-owned businesses in recent years.
The space is next to the Tenderloin Museum’s new venue for the immersive play, “The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot,” about the 1966 trans- and drag queen-led protest of social injustice and police harassment on Taylor Street. Amitin had been an advisor on the play.
Bonugli and Amitin’s familiarity with area business owners served as further reassurance the spot could work.
“It was kind of like, ‘Wait a second. My friend [the artist Seibot] who’s trans owns an art gallery [Moth Belly] across the street. Josh Cheon at Dark Entries Records is another friend of ours—it’s a gay-owned record label. So it was like a little enclave,” says Amitin.
They applied for a Storefront Opportunity Grant offered by San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development.
“I found us a ‘how to write a business plan in nine prompts.’ We spent six hours on ChatGPT, and we busted it out and submitted the application. It was just kind of like, ‘Well, we’ll see what happens,’” says Amitin.
With the plan approved two weeks later, they signed and returned the lease. About 30 days later, they received $25,000.
“We were like, ‘Oh sh-t. We have to do this.’ And it’s kind of taken on its own life,” Bonugli says.
To prepare for “The BIG Opening,” the pair reached out to the queer community to get artists and performers, many they call friends, involved.
Seibot, a San-Francisco-based queer, trans nonbinary visual artist and co-founder with John Vochatzer of the nearby Moth Belly Gallery, designed the Rosebud Gallery logo and is painting a mural on Rosebud’s storefront.
“I’m super excited about their new spot,” Seibot said.
Rosebud’s inaugural show, which focuses on the queer body, features work by Bay Area artists Jackie Brainland; Jun Yang; Ashley Salaz, an Oakland-based Indigenous photographer and filmmaker; FotoHoto, a photographer whose subjects are queer, POC and male-identifying; multi-layered artist Vinsantos DeFonte; fiber artist Mister TUFT Guy (Bonugli); and Seibot.
“Showing queer art—that’s the backbone of what we’re doing,” says Amitin.
They’re also dedicated to giving the limelight to underrepresented queer artists, such as those they’ve come across on Instagram.
Says Amitin, “We’re constantly sending each other [messages] back and forth like, ‘Oh my God, look at this person!’ Our selection process might evolve over time, but right now it’s just when we see something that just moves us. We’re definitely looking for those folks who are extremely talented who’ve never had a show or maybe had a little show in a coffee shop. Wall space should be accessible to everybody,” he adds.
The gallery, and opening, will be anything but subdued.
“When we tell people we’re opening a gallery, they’re like, ‘Oh.’ And we’re like, ‘Whatever you think is happening is not what’s happening,’” says Amitin, with a laugh.
With a dance performance from Jocquese Whitfield (Sir JoQ); DJs CarrieOnDisco (aka Carrie Morrison, who performs at T4T Worldwide events); Cheon (Dark Entries Records’ owner); Sounds Unknown (Matt McGettigan, Rosebud Gallery’s lighting and sound designer); and longtime friend, legendary drag artist Juanita MORE!, the opening will be a showcase of queer art and energy-filled celebration of queer culture.
Katya and Suki Skye, married queer co-founders of DACHA Kitchen & Bar, will providing piroshkis and a drink called Pussy Riot.
“We’re just collab-ing with everybody,” says Amitin.
“It’s a community event. We’re all supporting each other as much as possible,” adds Bonugli.
Rosebud Gallery joins the trans-centering Liminal Space SF in SoMa in its focus on and connection with the queer community. In an email, MORE! touched on the significance having a new joyous space in a historically queer hotspot.
“At a time when LGBTQIA+ rights are again under attack by conservative politicians, reclaiming queer space is as vital as ever. That includes affordable housing and commercial space for our queer community to live and thrive. … The gallery will join the long history of queer bars and establishments in this district that was once considered one of the gayest neighborhoods in San Francisco,” she wrote.
Sitting side by side in their new space, Amitin and Bonugli also pointed to the importance of opening their gallery amid nationwide anti-LGBTQ bills.
Bonugli says, “I think just being extremely visible is an incredible act within itself, especially with a lot of legislation being passed. What we can do is continue to just push and be an entity, and just show up and be us.”
“Everything out there, we cannot control, but in this room, this is a safe space. We’re celebrating folks who don’t get celebrated and who are living in fear. So we just want to create this home, this place, where people can be their authentic selves and feel safe, if only in this 1,100 square feet,” adds Amitin.
“The BIG Opening” is from 6 to 10 p.m. March 7 at Rosebud Gallery, 839 Larkin St., San Francisco; visit rosebudgallery.com.