Tag: identity

Guanyu Xu at Yancey Richardson Gallery

Born and raised in Beijing, Chicago-based artist Guanyu Xu was unable as a youth to openly express his queer identity.  Returning from the US to Beijing to visit, he transformed his parent’s apartment with photo installations that tell the story of his identity in some of its complexity.  Captured in photos, the arrangements appear to be digitally collaged but are in fact staged in real time and space, temporarily occupying an environment in a fleeting moment of openness that took place while his parents were away from their home. (Originally planned to be on view to the public in Chelsea at Yancey Richardson Gallery through April 4th, Xu’s work can be see on the gallery’s website and his own website.)

Guanyu Xu, My Desktop, archival pigment print, 26 ½ x 32 1/2, 2019.

Lyle Ashton Harris at Salon94

Lyle Ashton Harris’ new photographic self-portraits continue to posit ambiguous identities while forcing the question of what might be ‘natural’ as he dons masks collected by his uncle in East Africa while posing nude in various outdoor locations in New York and New England.  Here, a tenuously held, chipped colored sheet obscures Harris’ face and upper torso, masking his identity as he stands in front of an anonymous shingled façade.  Africa, art, ritual, the male nude, New England architecture and other references conjoin and collide in one provocative image.  (On view at Salon94 through Dec 21st).

Lyle Ashton Harris, Zamble at Land’s End #2, dye sublimation print on aluminum, 48 x 32 inches, 2018.

Erik Parker at Mary Boone Gallery

Rock climbers at sunset, a windswept beach and a wildly colored tropical lagoon are literally on the mind of this character by Erik Parker at Mary Boone Gallery.  Experienced or received notions of the world literally construct identity in this psychedelic portrait. (On view in Chelsea through April 21st).

Erik Parker, Good Vibrations, acrylic, collage/canvas, 84 x 72 inches, 2018.

Derrick Adams at Tilton Gallery

Tiny roads bisect the anonymous subject of Derrick Adams painted collage, suggesting that this character is on an unswerving journey. Plaid fabric maps a city grid and African textiles nod to the heritage of the woman in this vibrant portrait of an individual in the driver’s seat of her own life. (On view at Tilton Gallery on the Upper East Side through Jan 6th).

Derrick Adams, Figure in the Urban Landscape 3, acrylic, graphite, ink, fabric on paper collage, grip tape and model cars on wood panel, 48 ½ x 48 ½ x 2 1/8 inches, 2017.

Cristine Brache at Fierman

Christine Brache’s flesh-colored domino table swaps cards for playing pieces and features Brache’s face as queen and king. This mash-up speaks to the artist’s comparison of her own post-colonial genetic makeup to a VHS tape recording of a family event that has been repeatedly taped over. (At Fierman through March 19th).

Cristine Brache, Colonial style Domino table (self-portrait), porcelain, silicone, curly maple, dried oxeye daisies, glass, 33 x 33 x 45 inches, 2017.