Bottoms is the first UK solo exhibition by Sunderland-born and based artist-photographer, printmaker, and researcher Dean Raymond Gooch.  We know from our mail box that this is a subject that is dear to many of your hearts. And possibly other parts of your anatomy as well.

Bottoms showcases a new series of large photographic works, screenprints, and risograph prints exploring gay identity, communities, and fetish through striking imagery drawing on legacies of pop art, advertising, and fashion photography. The photographs and prints are both detailed and abstracted, taking personal cues to highlight and challenge binaries and stereotypical gay imagery such as BDSM, tight-worn jeans, colour-coded hankies, and black work boots. The images are carefully composed using props and bold colour combinations in a theatrical and playful way, speaking to pride, community, and solidarity in the face of continued homophobia, discrimination and violence.

Gooch plays on the age-old association of the bum in gay culture, be it through physical desire, sexual preference (tops and bottoms), or derogatory slang terms. Gooch celebrates the unbridled hedonistic joy of the bum and everything it represents.

Gooch graduated from the University of Sunderland with a BA Fine Art in 2025, where he was nominated for the New Blood Art – Emerging Art Prize 2025, which recognises outstanding graduate artists from UK Fine Art programmes, and was awarded The Lizzie Rowe Award.

This exhibition has been produced in partnership with the University of Sunderland Fine Art and the Northern Centre of Photography.