The bloviating, badly-behaving men holding positions of power in this country are forcing many to question and combat patriarchy as well as the outdated boys-club mentality. Macho, a group exhibition currently on view at Established Gallery, brings together the work of twelve artists examining toxic masculinity and what it means to be a man today.
Macho, on view at Established Gallery
The show’s curators, Alexandra Rubinstein and Andrew Smenos, decided to explore masculinity and gender relations because machismo is an “unexplored topic in today’s sexual landscape,” Smenos explained. “There’s a lot of things focusing specifically on women and women’s issues but maybe not so much about how masculinity affects every single person on the planet.”
“You can’t deny the fact that there’s a real sea change coming through culture and it has to do with masculinity being problematic,” he continued. “A lot of people are having these discussions and conversations but it’s never specifically about how masculinity is affecting everyone and that’s something that everyone has to be aware of…. From everything in the news—all these young men shooting people because they’re lonely, scared or feeling marginalized, upwards to the president being a complete asshole and affecting the entire world.”
Alexandra Rubinstein, Dump Trump
Erica Rosenfeld, (clockwise from left) Mushroom Dog, Tigers with Swan Snakes, Leopard-Lion,
Smenos and Rubinstein assembled a group of NYC-based artists working in various disciplines. “We wanted to have as many diverse media in the show as possible—photography, sculpture, drawing, video,” Smenos noted. “We also wanted to get as much diversity as far as age, gender orientation, and experience in the art world.” Each of the artists included in Macho offers a unique perspective on the topic as well as a healthy dose of humor. “Throughout it all, we wanted to make sure it wasn’t a finger-wagging shameful thing, a punishment or accusation in any way, but more of a lighthearted engagement with the subject matter,” according to Smenos. “We also knew we wanted it to be a very aesthetically powerful show, nothing could be boring, nothing could be muted or subdued,” he added.
The works definitely deliver a visual punch, such as Rubinstein's Dump Trump, a toilet seat emblazoned with the outline of the president's head; Rose Nestler's Gym Shorts, which leaves nothing to the imagination; Alfred Steiner’s Why I Want to Fuck Donald Trump, a portrait of the 45th president composed of male and female genitalia; and Dan Flanagan’s Dick (Snapped), whose title says it all.
Dan Flanagan, Dick (Snapped)
Paul Gagner, Portrait of the Artist's Brain
L-R: David Samuel Stern, Kosuke II; Andrew Smenos, The Glory Days Are Over
Chuckles come courtesy of Rubinstein’s painting Tell Me I’m Pretty, featuring a penis admiring its reflection in a full-length mirror and Smenos’ The Glory Days Are Over, a golden penis flaccidly poking out of a (glory) hole in the wall. Paul Gagner’s Portrait of the Artist’s Brain, a pink fleshy mass (made of gummy worms) wrapped in bondage belts, plays a series of jokes recorded by the artist roasting himself. In one of his zingers he quips: “Paul, you have the athletic ability of a newly born calf. Combine that with your grandpa body, Buddy Holly glasses, and you become full-blown pussy repellant.”
Less tongue-in-cheek works include Deborah Czeresko’s Exhaust—a mirrored glass muffler suspended from the ceiling—a commentary on her three decades working and having to prove herself in the male-dominated field of glass arts. Czeresko recently won the Netflix glassmaking competition Blown Away. Grace Whiteside’s melting dinnerware shows an “uglier, different side of domesticity,” Smenos said. “A dinner table where everything is coming apart at the seams.”
Grace Whiteside's Deflated Cup(s), Deflated Bowl(s), and Deflated Centerpiece
Daniel Davidson, (clockwise from top left) Mr. Everything, Next Summer, Big Gulp
Daniel Davidson’s trio of watercolors depict addiction and over-consumption. “Being a man, you can’t talk about it or emote or show weakness, so [pain] manifests itself in abuse with materials and chemicals,” Smenos noted of the works. For his own painting, Selling Power to the Powerless, Smenos painted Pepe the Frog, Matt Furie’s anthropomorphic amphibian that was appropriated as a meme to spread hate.
“It’s sad to think that there’s a lot of young men out there who don’t have the same kind of community I had when I was a younger, before the internet and before cell phones and before social media. People actually got together and started a band, skateboarded, or whatever,” Smenos recalled, “versus this inward social media sort of mind-warping that they all engage in of who can be the worst person or who can have the worst ideas.”
Andrew Smenos, Selling Power to the Powerless
“I felt like Pepe was co-opted by the right and all these poor marginalized young men, who don’t have a clue, are sort of being sold this idea” of community, Smenos continued. “It’s definitely not what [Furie] intended and it’s just sad that he didn’t have control over his own creation and it was twisted and warped into something really terrifying.” Smenos first sculpted a model of Pepe then painted the character with a “really unnerving, panicked sort of face,” which the artist assumes “is the face of a lot of these poor kids, who are scared and have a lot of contempt.”
David Samuel Stern, Dexton
Don’t let all the phalluses on display fool you—they are more than just dick pics. Smenos insists that Macho is not about “making men feel bad.” The exhibit is meant to encourage visitors to have a conversation about gender. “There’s so much more you can ask about the work, whether or not you see it in the first blush,” according to Smenos. “There’s so many more layers to everyone’s work here. It’s informational, funny, and really potent.”
“I think the best part is that people walk out with at least a grin or they understand…they get the joke or get the humor in the show. Without that, then it’s just a very serious show.”
Macho
Established Gallery, 75 6th Avenue, Prospect Heights
On view November 9-December 8
Learn more here.
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