We are a proudly LGBTQ+ owned frame shop in the heart of the Castro and Pride month is always personal for us. This year our windows tell a story in two pieces :one poster and one object; both framed and on view worth stopping to look at.
Keith Haring — Ignorance = Fear
Keith Haring made this poster in 1989 for the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. It is one of the most direct and recognizable pieces of activist art made during the AIDS crisis and it has lost none of its urgency.
We framed it in a lacquer white frame with a double mat. A clean white outer margin and a slim orange-red inner line that picks up the red in the art and adds just enough dimension to give the piece presence without interfering with it. Finished with Optium Museum Acrylic, UV filtered and virtually glare free, so the colors read exactly as Haring intended them.
Harvey Milk — Campaign tote bag, c. 1977
This canvas and Levi’s denim tote was carried by a volunteer for Harvey Milk’s campaign for San Francisco Supervisor, one of the first openly gay candidates to seek public office in America. It held flyers, hopes and the quiet determination of ordinary people who believed things could be different. That it survived is remarkable.
We framed it in a light hardwood shadowbox, also finished with Optium Museum Acrylic. The shadowbox gives the tote the depth and breathing room an object like this needs. It reads as what it is, an artifact, not just something pinned to a wall.
Why we frame things like this
Posters fade. Objects deteriorate. Paper yellows, fabric weakens, colors shift. Conservation framing slows all of that down significantly: the right glazing, the right mount, the right environment inside the frame. These two pieces have already survived decades. Properly framed, they will survive decades more.
We frame paintings, prints, photographs and posters every day at our Castro shop. We also frame objects, memorabilia, documents and things that carry personal or historical weight. The approach is always the same: we look at what the piece is, what it means, and we design around that.
Come see the windows
Both pieces are on view in our shop windows on Castro Street through Pride month. Come take a look, and come inside if you have something you have been meaning to frame.
📍 Visit our Castro frame shop 📞 Call us 📧 Email us your artwork 💻 Request a quote on our website
🏳️🌈 Happy Pride from everyone at Underglass.