Arleen Olshan, a Mt. Airy–based artist and activist, lived around the corner from her friend Gil Forman when she was younger. The duo shared some similarities: they both attended Olney High School, were interested in the arts (Olshan was a visual artist and Forman was a ballet dancer), and moved to New York to pursue their artistic dreams. They also both came out as gay.

“He expanded my awareness of the world and knowledge,” Olshan told the Local. “The friendship was deep. Not a romantic relationship, but I loved him.”

Roughly 30 years ago, when Forman was dying from complications related to HIV/AIDS, he asked Olshan to paint a portrait of him and his partner, Zach, after his passing. Olshan started the painting, but didn’t finish it because her many ventures took her “in a million different directions.” When she retired, Olshan resumed working on the portrait and completed it in 2024.

According to Olshan, the painting of Gil and Zach served as the “impetus” for an entire project of drawings, paintings, and photographs to honor LGBTQ+ activists, colleagues, friends, artists, authors, and lovers whom Olshan knew and has since lost. This memorial series, entitled “Dead Dykes & Some Gay Men,” has been combined with another interconnected body of work, “Women Loving Women,” to form Olshan’s latest exhibition.

“Arleen Olshan: The Tangle I’ve Gotten Into” opens Jan. 16 at iMPeRFeCT Gallery in Germantown and runs through Feb. 21.

A life of activism and art

In 1976, Olshan was the co-coordinator of the original Gay Community Center, now known as William Way LGBT Community Center. This organization offered a library, classes, support groups, and a coffeehouse. Olshan said this center was the first of its kind in Philadelphia and presented a “wonderful opportunity.”

“It was a very freeing time, when people were finally coming out,” Olshan said. “They were celebrating. We were being alive together. … It was a time of appreciation of each other and our own capabilities and accomplishments.”

Fifty years after Olshan helped organize William Way LGBT Community Center’s first art exhibition, the Center is celebrating the anniversary by presenting Olshan’s latest exhibit in a full circle moment.

There will be more than 30 works on display drawn from the two collections. In addition to more than a dozen portraits from “Dead Dykes & Some Gay Men,” there will also be large-scale, figurative paintings and drawings from the 1970s and 1980s from “Women Loving Women.” These pieces capture themes of intimacy, solidarity, and liberation of lesbian feminist communities.

Furthermore, there will also be an archival element to the exhibit.

“I didn’t intentionally become an archivist, but people were passing and I was going to their memorials, or there were newspaper articles about the people and I saved all that,” Olshan said. “As I was painting the portraits, I realized I had all these pieces of paper and different cards from memorials and things like that.”

Fond memories

According to Olshan, it is difficult to pick a personal favorite piece in the exhibit. The portrait of Gil and Zach is important to her, as well as a piece called “From the Heart.”

“[It] will either shock people or make people happy to see, because it’s two nude women in the grass embracing and it’s monumental. It’s life-sized,” Olshan said. “I’m very proud of that piece and I haven’t exhibited it for 30 years, so it’ll be very exciting to have that back up again.”

Another piece, entitled “Casa Pudenda,” shows four women with whom Olshan shared a house in Powelton Village in the 1970s. Olshan said the lesbian collective’s house had a rotating cast of women in school, working, or living on welfare during “quite an era” of “really inexpensive rents.”

Olshan is hopeful these fond memories will transmit to younger generations who view her work.

“I’m happy that I can celebrate this work and the knowledge that I have, and I hope it inspires younger people to stay with their art,” Olshan said.

A significant year

Jake Foster, curator and art exhibitions manager at William Way LGBT Community Center, worked with Olshan on curating the show.

“As a younger queer person, it has been an honor to work with Arleen Olshan, who is such a pillar of our community,” Foster said in a press release. “As we reflect on the Center’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.”

However, the significance of this exhibit being showcased in 2026 does not solely lie in the Center’s golden anniversary. For Olshan, the “charged” political climate makes this exhibition more meaningful.

“We have to keep a positivity about the human experience and human potential, and not forget who we are and where we come from,” Olshan said. “Hopefully, [visitors] will feel encouraged, empowered, and excited about what is possible and to continue the fight for human rights on all levels.”

“Arleen Olshan: The Tangle I’ve Gotten Into,” iMPeRFeCT Gallery, 5539 Germantown Ave. The opening reception will be on Jan. 16 from 6-8 p.m. and an artist talk will be on Jan. 30 from 6-8 p.m. Learn more at waygay.org.

Maggie Dougherty can be reached at Margaret@chestnuthilllocal.com.