I’m going to be honest — when I found out about The Reach of Light, my first thought was: this is exactly the kind of thing Coral Gables needs more of.
A Pride art exhibition. Six acclaimed Florida LGBTQIA+ artists. The historic sanctuary at Coral Gables United Church of Christ transformed into an immersive gallery. And it’s free and open to the public.
I already knew one of the artists behind this show, David Gary Lloyd, who is both a featured artist and the show’s director. I first encountered his work at the opening of Garden Shadows of the Sun, his solo exhibition at 255 Alhambra Circle commissioned by Terranova Corp. What struck me about David’s work is the way he plays with patterns. He finds the same textures and rhythms in nature that you see in human bodies, in movement, in emotion. It’s like he’s reminding you: we are nature. The same rules apply to all of us. I left that show genuinely moved, and I’ve been following his work ever since. So when I heard he was bringing together a group of artists for something this intentional and in a space this meaningful, I wanted to tell every single person I know in the Gables to go.
Here’s everything you need to know about the show, the artists, and why this one is worth clearing your calendar for.
The Reach of Light — Pride Art Exhibition
📅 June 4–6, 2026
🎉 Opening Gathering: Friday, June 5th, 6pm–9pm
📍 Coral Gables United Church of Christ, 3010 Desoto Blvd, Coral Gables FL 33134
Produced by Gay in the Gables in partnership with Coral Gables United Church of Christ
About Gay in the Gables
If you haven’t heard of Gay in the Gables yet, here’s your introduction. They’re a Coral Gables-based community initiative dedicated to fostering connection, creativity, and inclusive social experiences through thoughtfully curated events and gatherings. By bringing together a diverse network of local residents and professionals, they create welcoming spaces that encourage authentic interaction, cultural exchange, and community engagement. Founder Steve Littlehale put it well: “Coral Gables has been ready for a defining Pride Month cultural moment, and The Reach of Light brings together artists, faith, and community to foster dialogue, expand visibility, and create meaningful connection across our city.”
This exhibition builds on previous Gay in the Gables activations, including David Gary Lloyd’s solo show Garden Shadows of the Sun at 255 Alhambra Circle last year. Every time they put something together, it feels thoughtfully done and rooted in the specific character of this city. This one is no exception.
What Is The Reach of Light About?
The exhibition features six Florida LGBTQIA+ artists working primarily in photography and visual arts, brought together inside the historic sanctuary at Coral Gables United Church of Christ, which is itself transformed into the gallery space. That location isn’t incidental. It’s central to the whole conversation the show is having.
Across the works, light operates as both material and metaphor. References to halos, iconography, and devotional imagery, seen through a contemporary queer lens, invite viewers to consider how divinity is ascribed; and who gets to be seen as sacred. The queer community and the religious community are so often positioned against each other. In this space, they’re brought into peaceful coexistence.
“I hope this show can inspire how we can create positive dialogue and promote empathy and love.” – David Gary Lloyd
It’s a bold, necessary thing to do. Especially right now, in Florida, where the cultural and political climate has made visibility feel like an act of resistance. The Reach of Light doesn’t pretend that tension doesn’t exist. It walks straight into it, and asks what beauty, belonging, and belonging-to-something-sacred might look like when we stop pitting communities against each other.
Meet the Artists
This is the part I really wanted to share, because the lineup here is genuinely impressive. These are not emerging artists being given their first shot — they’re established, widely exhibited, and each bringing a distinct visual world to the show.
Josh Aronson
Josh Aronson (b. Toronto, Canada, 1994) is an artist and photographer who was raised in Florida and received his B.A. in Philosophy from Northwestern University. His work has been shown at NSU Art Museum, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, Belfast Photo Festival in Northern Ireland, and Filter Photo in Illinois, among others. He currently has an art commission with the City of Miami Beach No Vacancy program.
For The Reach of Light, Josh is showing two works: Ophelia (2025) and Christlike (2025). Ophelia reimagines the iconic Pre-Raphaelite image of feminine surrender — but here, a man lies draped across a fallen log in lush Florida wetlands, surrounded by water lilies, barefoot and open. It’s quietly radical. Christlike places a group of children in a rocky coastal landscape, water splashing around them — there’s an elemental, timeless feeling to it, the kind of image that makes you think about what we pass down, and what we call holy.
Celeste Burns
Celeste Burns (b. Jacksonville, Florida, 1997) developed a love of photography at age 12 and went on to study both photography and illustration at the Parsons School of Design. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and at the Bishop Museum. She describes the camera as an extension of her heart — and her images show it. Celeste’s photography centers on love, passion, emotion, and sunlight, with a gift for capturing the way connection looks when it’s completely unguarded.
Her work in the show, Myles’ Homecoming (2020), is a portrait of a young man emerging from the ocean — chest deep in the water, face turned toward the camera with a stillness that feels like arrival. There’s something quietly triumphant about it. Coming home to yourself, to your body, to the water. It’s the kind of image that stays with you.
Ricky Cohete
Ricky Cohete (b. Guayaquil, Ecuador, 1985) was raised in Miami, where Florida’s luminous, high-contrast light first drew him to photography. Largely self-taught, he began by photographing ballet dancers in the city, developing a sustained focus on the male form. He works in open landscapes — sand, sea, sky — creating a dynamic interplay between discipline and vulnerability. His influences include mythology, tarot symbolism, and astrology, which weave through his work as esoteric references that feel both archetypal and unmistakably contemporary.
Ricky is showing two works: Rojo (2020) and Relámpago (2020). Rojo is all shadow and intimacy — a body curved around a single red apple in near-darkness, the fruit the only point of color and light, loaded with every symbol you want to bring to it. Relámpago (Lightning) photographs what appears to be a classical marble sculpture — two figures embracing, veiled and clinging to each other — shot in a warm sepia that makes it feel both ancient and urgent. It’s stunning.
(You may also recognize Ricky’s photograph Corona Del Sol as the cover image for this exhibition — the figure in the wide-brimmed hat crowned with palm fronds, head tilted back, eyes closed. It’s immediately iconic.)
Juicy Love Dion
Juicy Love Dion (b. Florida, 2001) is a multidisciplinary performer and drag artist whose work blends glamour, satire, and cultural commentary. You may already know them from their current feature on RuPaul’s Drag Race, where they’ve brought their commanding stage presence and bold visual storytelling to a global audience. Through performance, costume, and persona, Juicy Love Dion explores themes of identity, queerness, and self-invention — drawing from both contemporary drag culture and classic performance traditions. Their work celebrates resilience, transformation, and the power of visibility within LGBTQIA+ communities.
David Gary Lloyd
David Gary Lloyd (b. Annapolis, Maryland, 1985) lives and works in Miami. His practice spans photography, digital painting, and mixed media, and he intertwines Queer symbolism and portraiture to explore identity, resilience, and the LGBTQIA+ experience within both natural and contrived spaces. His work has been shown at Context Art Fair during Art Basel Week in Miami, the Coral Gables Museum, the Coral Springs Museum, and the GLAAD Art Auction. Publications including Vogue Mexico, Harper’s Baazar Brasil, Wallpaper Magazine, Purple Muse Magazine, and Design-Milk have all featured his photography. He’s also the director of this show — which makes sense once you’ve stood in front of his work and felt how much intention is behind it.
David is showing two pieces: Echoes (2025) and Creation (2025). Echoes is a triptych — three panels of a figure in a long grey dress surrounded by layered floral imagery, soft palms, and a dreamy, blue-green atmosphere. There’s a ghosted, double-exposed quality to the images, as if the subject exists in multiple moments simultaneously. It’s the visual feeling of memory, or longing, or the self that lingers after a transformation. Creation is a diptych: a figure draped in sheer fabric, arm raised to shield their face, paired with a close-up of a swallowtail butterfly wing. The juxtaposition is unmistakable — the fragile, spectacular architecture of the wing mirroring the body. We are nature. The same patterns apply.
That’s the thing I keep coming back to with David’s work. It finds the thread that connects all living things and pulls on it gently, until you can’t unsee it.
Michael Zimmerer
Michael Zimmerer (b. Cocoa, Florida, 1989) is a mixed-media artist whose practice spans photography, sculpture, and painting. His earlier works explored humanity’s place within nature and society, often reflecting on the tensions between individuals and their environments. Over time, his focus has deepened into questions of existence, the complexities of the psyche, and the impacts of humankind on the environment. Through dramatic, quiet imagery and thoughtful compositions, Zimmerer invites viewers to contemplate the interconnectedness of the human experience, consciousness, and our shared presence on this planet.
His work in the show, Embers (2023), is breathtaking in scale and feeling. Two small figures stand on a vast, dark red canyon landscape, a single beam of golden light cutting down from above them through the darkness like a spotlight from somewhere unreachable. It’s an image about smallness and grace in equal measure — about being seen by something larger than yourself. In the context of this exhibition, it hits differently.
The Venue: Coral Gables United Church of Christ
One more thing worth saying about where this is happening. Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ is a historic and welcoming faith community founded in 1923, one of the city’s most architecturally beautiful buildings, with its Mediterranean Revival design, and one of the most open and affirming congregations in South Florida. They actively embrace people of all backgrounds, including the LGBTQIA+ community, and they’ve long used the arts as a space for meaningful dialogue, cultural programming, and spiritual reflection.
Walking through an art show inside a 100-year-old sanctuary, with all that light and all that history, surrounded by work that asks you to think about who belongs in sacred spaces? That’s going to be an experience.
Go to the Opening — It’s Free
The exhibition runs June 4–6, 2026, and the opening gathering is this Friday, June 5th, from 6pm to 9pm at 3010 Desoto Blvd, Coral Gables. It’s free and open to the public. There is truly no reason not to go.
Follow the artists on Instagram:
@DavidGaryLloyd, @RickyCohete, @CelesteBurnsPhotography, @TheJuicyLove, @Jda.usa, and @MichaelGZimmerer.
And follow Gay in the Gables for more on what they’re building in our city. This one’s worth showing up for.
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