Manhood: Masculinity, Male Identity and Culture opens at Helen Day Art Center Friday, September 23rd. Talk at 6:00 pm and Reception at 6:30 pm.An exploration of contemporary male identity through the eyes of practicing artists, this exhibit addresses the lifelong process of choosing how to live, behave, define oneself, interact, and to simultaneously reconcile these choices and actions with our self image and with the expectations of our culture through the lens of male gender.
Manhood: Masculinity, Male Identity and Culture, curated by HDAC Director Nathan Suter, examines the gap between cultural expectations of masculinity and the identities chosen by men. Touching on themes of readiness, ability, confusion, frustration, freedom and responsibility, the thirteen artists in the show explore this landscape in the present.
How do we navigate our life paths and what parts of this journey are influenced by gender and gender expectations? What are the messages we receive about how to be masculine, how to behave like a man? How do those messages reach us, and what signals to we send in response?Artists in the exhibition are: Jesse Burke, Steven Frost, Jason Hanasik, Keith Hoyt, Zinah Loo, Darrel Morris, Polly Motley , Andrew Mowbray, Mark Newport, Oli Rodriguez, Jules Rosskam (screening), Jeremy Arlo Simmons, and Travis LeRoy Southworth.
Images: Mark Newport, Sweaterman 8, 2011 Jason Hanasik, Sharrod on Balcony
