Ed Parente (1941–1992) was a Parsons-trained artist and sculptor best known for creating the iconic poster art for Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand (1971) — the first gay display ad ever published in the New York Times. Parente and Jack Fritscher became close friends after years of anonymous encounters at San Francisco’s Barracks bathhouse, discovering they lived just around the corner from each other in Noe Valley. Parente went on to co-produce and design the invitations and posters for Night Flight, the legendary New Year’s Eve 1977 art-sex happening, and exhibited his signature Plexiglas-boxed sculptures at galleries across the city through the 1980s. Fritscher’s full profile of Parente appears in Profiles in Gay Courage.

Profiles in Gay Courage
EDWARD PARENTE
Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand and the NYT

Homosurrealism magazine
August 20, 2020
Pioneer Homosurrealist (pdf)