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BOOT DIRT ONLY
Graham Downing
14 December–25 January 2026

Precious Cargo presents BOOT DIRT ONLY, an exhibition by Tucson-based artist Graham Downing. On display are a selection of paintings and polaroids from Downing’s reflections of their year-long experience working as a stuntman at Old Tucson, the theme park on the west side of the Tucson Mountains.


In the works, traditions of western landscape painting and portraiture contrast against an imagined queering of the theme park and its performers. Men dress in cowboy attire and emulate an exaggerated 19th century version of camp and masculinity in which all forms of relationship seem to get worked out through violence. Guns are drawn, adversaries get thrown or blown off of buildings, grappling lends itself to human touch. Downing draws parallels between the work of the stuntman and drag performance and kink scenarios, in which for a time the performer embodies a gender, an affect, and place in the power dynamic. We look at Tanner, the painting depicting the cowboy performer of the same name, the moment he exposes his pink frilly undergarments to the audience & roses get thrown at his feet. Downing writes:


Within the confines of scripts pulled straight from John Wayne's mouth I found ways to queer code my characters, they were tough, at times evil, stomping and shooting men to death but in my heart I knew they were cock suckers. I knew they dreamed of being in the can-can show, I knew they wondered what the dresses felt like and if any make up could cover the scars I was putting on in the dressing room.


A selection of polaroids capture blips of freefall in which the only context is sky. Bodies suspend in air, time, space. Their brief moments of freedom are preserved in each intimate image. A single bucket sits on the gallery floor, pulled from the Old Tucson dressing room, meant to catch the dirt on performers’ boots. “BOOT DIRT ONLY”, it reads, an instruction for discard, a directive for performers to leave their characters behind when the show is over.


The exhibition will be on view through January 25th, 2026. 

Opening Reception December 14, 7-9pm.


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Graham Downing is an artist, comedian, and stuntman based in Tucson. Their work has been exhibited throughout the United States, BOOT DIRT ONLY is their debut exhibition in Arizona. More images and information about their work can be found on their website.