My practice is a process of devouring shame. As an autistic person, the process of coming home to myself begins with destruction. Destruction of the persona created for the expectations of a white supremacist cisheteropatriarchal capitalist society, a return to the earth. Into the dirt, with space to be watered and to grow. As I reconstruct with my honest self unobscured, a queer transsexual man, I reject the idea that assimilation will bring me validation, love, or safety. I reject the fear-based desire to conform as a practice of sitting with photos of my nude body on full display - surgically altered, hormonally changed, visible. Sometimes intimate, sometimes powerful, always vulnerable. I spend many hours in conversation with the image of myself in my most “shameful” states, a practice of facing myself, until only an image crafted with days, weeks, or months of love and intention remains. A transmutation of shame, a declaration of worth, an offering of so-called “darkness” as something beautiful, delectable, and light.
Sex o' Clock Artist Talk: Trans Masculine Pleasure, Perversion, and Self-Acceptance
Official artist talk as part of Amsterdam Art Week in collaboration with No Limits! Art Castle in Amsterdam.
Sex Shop Art Show
Group show of nearly 30 artists focused on queer and erotic art as the inaugural exhibition of No Limits! Art Castle's new permanent home in De Wallen.
I've spent the majority of this year working on my relocation to The Netherlands from the USA and have, as such, not had time to actively seek residencies or gallery collaborations in 2024. I have spent the time available focused on creating my new body of work surrounding my trans body. However, I do work professionally as both a painter and musician (no other job) and have sold paintings this year via private collectors...