(via William Yang – The Art of Seduction | Iris Prize Short List 2011)

William Yang, The Art of Seduction Doco. 2010. Dir. Craig Boreham  [image ‘Alpha’ by by William Yang, Brisbane late 60’s]

William Yang is a third-generation Australian-Chinese artist whose work examines his Chinese family history and gay identity. This documentary looks at one aspect of William’s work as a photographer - male nudes - the most personal and vulnerable of his work because it always involves a negotiation or transaction.

curate:

thegang:

Photos by Dru Donovan

Young American photographer Dru Donovan’s photographs are ambiguous and sensitive and compelling. Looking at the images, its hard to know whether her work is staged, or more reportage based. She graduated from Yale last year, but information on her or her work is scant, which actually serves to make the images more intriguing and open to interpretation. 

Taking place in a strange suburban limbo, and dealing with issues like body image and the awkwardness of teenage years, Donovan’s work shows subjects seemingly uncomfortable in themselves, often awkward in front of the lens. There are shades of Diane Arbus with her uncanny knack of capturing weirdness in mundane situations, but it’s Donavan’s ability to capture the vulnerability in her subjects in such a thoughtful way that makes her work so powerful. A talent to watch.

 (words via Field of Vision)

(via sexartandpolitics)

(via Man as Object - Reversing the Gaze)

The surveyor of women in herself is male: the surveyed female … thus she tums herself into an object-and most particularly an object of vision: a sight”.
Ways of Seeing, by John Berger

MAN as OBJECT - Reversing the Gaze
The exhibition ‘Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze’  will examine the visibility of men and masculinity from female/feminist/transgender perspectives.  In the context of this exhibition, the male figure will assume the historically ‘female’ role with the male body and its gender expression shown as spectacle for a woman’s viewing and contemplation.

This truly feminist stance positions the surveyor as critic of traditional gender roles, problematizing notions of ‘men,’ ‘male,’ ‘masculinity,’ ‘women’ and ‘female.’ This is an inclusive show for women and transgender artists to challenge what it means for ‘women’ to look at ‘men.’

‘Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze’ SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA  November 4 - 30, 2011.

thequeerzombie:

DIK Fagazine

From their website: DIK Fagazine is the first and the only artistic magazine from Central and Eastern Europe concentrated on homosexuality and masculinity.

Cover 5, 2006

I really want to get my hands on an issue. Seriously.

(Source: dirtylibrarianthoughts)

alirussell:

My latest project is a short-form documentary series about female-to-male transgender guys in Sydney. TRANNY BOYS: THE NEW AUSSIE BLOKES follows the lives of three Australian trans men as they negotiate testosterone, surgery, facial hair, and the trials of love, sex, and family.

The series…

thegang:

Serenity Prayer by Rafael Santiago Jr

“Like most effeminate boys, I was mocked constantly in school. For me, the torment began in the third grade when I started to hear, again and again, that I was a “girly-girl.” Every year after that it got worse, but, because I was ashamed, I waited until middle school before I asked an adult to do something about the teasing.

It was then that Guillermo, a cousin I hardly knew, moved to my hometown and enrolled in the seventh grade. His buddies, a small group of some of the most disliked boys in my class, decided they would call me “Esmeralda.” It had always been the popular kids who teased me, so it was more than I could bear when my cousin and his friends started mocking me too.

When his mom came to visit mine one afternoon, I complained that Guillermo always pretended that I was a girl. It seems odd to me now that I chose Aunt Aixsa to ask for help—everybody said that she thought of me as a “straight-up little faggot.” But, when I told her about my problem, she offered me a tough Latina stare.

“Ralphy,” she said, “You’re not a girl. Don’t let them say that to you. Come here, come here—whenever people call you a girl, go up to them and prove you’re a man. Just pull your penis out of your pants.”

I’m still a soft-spoken and graceful male who is sexually attracted to the male form and who is still working out his problems with people like my cousin and his pathetic friends. I’ve long since learned that even so-called “masculine” and “bi-sexual” males too often shun effeminate males: no femmes allowed. Just like my classmates, they don’t see me as a man, despite the obvious. Therefore, I continue metaphorically to follow my aunt’s advice in life and art.”

Handsome Men for Women « ARTimeNY

At 93 years old, Sylvia Sleigh continues to paint portraits, often nudes and often of men.

As she was quoted in New York Magazine recently, “There were always pictures of beautiful women but very few of handsome men, so I thought that it would be truly fair to paint handsome men for women.” Engaged in the feminist art movement, Sleigh in the 1970s challenged the tradition of the odalisque by substituting a male subject.

In her current show of small-scale portraits,  Sleigh takes us back to the art world of the 1960s and 70s. Arriving in NY from England in the early 60s and married to art critic Lawrence Alloway who coined the term “Pop Art”, Sleigh became very involved in the local art scene