James Fowler: BAR CODE

BAR CODE
James Fowler

April 1 – 29, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 2, 6 – 9pm
Red Head Gallery, Toronto

Red Head Gallery is pleased to present BAR CODE, a new exhibition by Toronto-based artist James Fowler.

BAR CODE is a collection of seventy coloured bandanas hand embroidered with corporate marketing slogans and taglines. Drawing on the historical “Hanky Code,” a colour-based system of erotic signaling used by gay men since the 1970s, Fowler reactivates this subcultural language to examine the corporatization of Pride and the gradual sanitization of sex-positive queer culture.

For decades, coloured handkerchiefs worn in the back pocket allowed gay men to communicate specific desires through a nuanced system of coded colours. As Pride events increasingly attract corporate sponsorship, however, more explicit aspects of queer culture are often softened or excluded in favour of family-friendly branding.

By pairing Hanky Code colours with corporate slogans whose language of appetite, pleasure, endurance, and service echoes their coded meanings, Fowler exposes the uneasy overlap between consumer marketing and queer desire.

Free beginner hand embroidery workshops will be held Saturday, April 18 and Saturday, April 25, 2 – 5pm.

James Fowler is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist working across painting, textiles, and sculpture. He is a member of Red Head Gallery and a founding member of the Throbbing Rose Collective, producers of Nuit Rose.

View past exhibitions by James Fowler

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The Red Head Gallery
401 Richmond St West, Suite 115
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
www.redheadgallery.org
info@redheadgallery.org
416 504 5654

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The Red Head Gallery

Accessibility Information

The Red Head Gallery

Accessible

The Red Head Gallery was established in 1990 and is Toronto’s most enduring collectively run art gallery. It has stood the test of time as an exhibition space as well as a collective where critically engaged, highly productive artists enjoy curatorial control over the presentation of their work. Over the past two decades more than 100 artists have been part of The Red Head Gallery and have produced over 200 exhibitions.

There are two accessible entrances to 401 Richmond. At the northwest corner of the building, a ramp leads upward from the sidewalk to an automatic entrance onto the building’s main floor that measures 34″ wide, and with a lip that measures 1″ high. The other entrance at the northeast corner is less evident but equally, if not more, accessible. The automatic door measures 34″ wide and inside has a gradual ramp downwards which leads towards the elevators.

Methodology

Self-Survey

Date

Dec 2017

Entrance & Building Exterior

Entrance
Street Level	Yes
Street Level without Steps	Yes
Street Level with Steps	No
Door
Width of doorway	80"
Automatic Door Opener	No
Vestibule
Vestibule at Entrance	No

Restrooms

Accessible Washroom
Single Occupancy Accessible Washroom	No
Wheelchair Accessible Stall
Wheelchair Accessible Stall in a Washroom	Yes
Washroom Door width	"
Washroom Automatic Door Opener	"
Grab Bars Beside and Behind the Toilet	No
Obstructions Under the Sink	No
Measurement from the Bottom of the Sink to the Floor	"