The Web: The Birth and Legacy of New York’s First Asian Gay Bar

In the early 1990s, when racism and homophobia shadowed New York’s nightlife, at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 58th Street, a quiet revolution took place. The Web, known in Chinese as 盘丝洞, opened as New York’s first Asian gay bar, founded by Alan Chow and his business partner Chan. For a generation of Asian queer immigrants who had long existed in the margins, The Web offered what New York had never before given its Asian queer community: a home.

The Web is a space where Asian queer men could see themselves reflected, respected, and celebrated. This exhibition, through archival materials, photography, and a project-specific interview zine, we revisit The Web’s legacy and see how it redefined Asian queer nightlife in New York. In a time shaped by instability and uncertainty, the act of imagining new worlds carries contemporary relevance. In that sense, Between Worlds: the Intangible Thread is two artists expanding reality by holding open alternatives. It is through these alternatives that dialogue occurs—across practices, across stories, and across the ephemeral yet vivid spaces between what was, what is, and what might be.