Gazing at Arty Males

Two Revisited Portraits of John 2005 - 2007, by Paul Mpagi Sepuya

I know that most of you don’t mind looking at artful, beautiful pictures of good-looking guys. So in the interest of art and aesthetics, I’m offering a head’s up about a great exhibition opening next week here in NYC (Friday, April 20th, from 7pm - 10pm at the Powerhouse Arena in Dumbo, Brooklyn, to be precise). The show is called “The Male Gaze” (not the “male gays,” although that wouldn’t be entirely inappropriate either) and is a collection of a wide range of photography, paintings and other kinds of art all celebrating the male image; in the show “sullen burger boys meet the effete cognoscenti,” as the press release says.

The works on display span over 100 years, and they're bawdy, beautiful, tender, evocative... All of those good things. There’ll be works from Ryan McGinley, Jack Pierson, Christian Holstad, James Bidgood, AA Bronson, Bruce LaBruce, Slava Mogutin and Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856–1931), as well as emerging talents like Brian Kenny, Scott Hug and Michael Magnan, Paul Mpagi Sepuya and j. morrison. And lots more...

Look at these in the meantime. The artist for each is noted under each image.

Brian Kenny

Jack Pierson

Joe Ovelman

Slava Mogutin

Comments

[elliott]

i see you've mentioned slava mougtin! his work is great. his highly sexualised installation and photographic works are a paradox. at once they are challenging to the feminised concept of the gay man present in the social psyche, yet subtle features, expressions, clothing and props continually reinvent and reinvigorate the fem nature of gay boys. his installation and photographic work effortlessly obliterates sex/gender stereotypes, to present new, masculinised and hyper-masculinised portrayals of mid-20s gay men.

see my commentary here: http://plastikkpoet.blogspot.com/2007/09/male-on-male-masculine-gaze-slava.html