No Homo, Acrylic Spraypaint, Posca on PosterBoard. 30 x 22.
Software Update, Acrylic on Canvas. 11 x 14.
@luisifer.studio | I wanted to play with the deceptions of patriarchy and how it relates to the LGBTQIA+ community. In specific, queer men and how patriarchy others them in institutions that are supposed to be welcoming for them on the basis of gender.
Two of my pieces explore childhood and it relates to expressing feminine interests as a man. I want to hold a mirror to by inserting queer themes into them and normalizing into the traditionally masculine and urban art aesthetics that my work is rooted in.
“Software Update” is done in my classic streetart aesthetic, an art form whose urban aesthetics and fashion have very masculine attributes associated with it, and flips its theming by depicting a man in more masc-street wear opting to pick the male doll (expressing queerfashion) over the action figure whose dressed more like him.
“No Homo” is based on interactions I have had at the gym that have made me feel uncomfortable and salient because of my sexuality. It depicts three men flexing and feeling their muscles in a homo-erotic fashion but it is seen as okay because they are heterosexual and it is framed as them admiring each other’s bodies. As a queer man, that kind of closeness with another man would be considered a sexual advance. I wanted to stress this discomfort and straight privilege associated with this kind of behavior by making the heterosexual men angels and the queer modestly dressed bystander a demon. The heterosexual men expressing queer behavior are given a pass but queer men who openly express queer behavior are often given looks and are judged.
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Exhibition Artists | Giovanna Aguirre-Peresson • Noa Alemán • Lex Applewhite • Danielle Arend • Bria Bridges • Luis Carrasco • Katie Cercone • San Chen • Juana Duran Charicata • Jason Guzman • Insidious Studios • Akira Iyashikei • Tai Kojro-Badziak • Kevin C. Lawler • Sara Laureano • Sunshine Lombre • Catherine (Yiwen) Lyu • Lisa Mannion • Victor Manuel Manzo Meneses • Dani Massey • Cara Mastanduno • Toni Maugeri • Mark Nelson • Earica Parrish • Gabriel Patti • Luna Rail • Maria Requena • Amyia Ross • Evelyn Rubi Hernandez • Kaltra Seferi • Zelda Jane Thorn • Hope Wood • Araceli Zuniga