Leavitt’s debut in Palm Springs and at M Modern Gallery. The crux of this show is a series of celebrity wedding cake toppers, a la the custom cake toppers.

Mike Leavitt
“Real Love”
Gay Cake Topper Show
M Modern Gallery
Seattle-based sculptor Mike Leavitt discovered an ingenious side-business in creating custom wedding cake figurines. Hand-carved from photographs provided by the bride and groom, Leavitt would sculpt miniature versions of the couples, making a playful turn on tradition and immortalizing the partners as sculpture. Real Love, at M Modern Gallery, celebrates gay marriage in this collection of famous same-sex partnerships. In the midst of tense political discussion and equal rights struggles for gay couples, Mike Leavitt offers a notorious gay clientele an entertaining breather and fun reminder that art and love triumph biased politics.

Leavitt’s miniature clay figurines depict couples like Ellen DeGeneres & Portia DeRossi, Jack Twist & Ennis Del Mar (Brokeback Mountain), Siegfried & Roy, and Susan Sontag & Annie Liebovitz. Other famous pairs include John & Yoko, Barack & Michelle, and Brad & Angelina. Gay or straight, all of these cake topper couples have endured through the immaterial trials of the public eye. A big celebration of Real Love is packed into Leavitt’s little people paired in wedlock.