David Antonio Cruz: FOR I AM, OR I WAS. THERETURNOFTHEDIRTYBOYS
April 6th - May 13th, 2016

For I am - or I was, thereturnofthedirtyboys was a solo exhibition by Artist-In-Residence David Antonio Cruz. The exhibition explored the timeless and timely intersections of queer identity, the male-to-male gaze, and navigation of space as a genderfluid person of color. All work in the exhibition was created during Cruz’s residency at Project For Empty Space, and ranged from large-scale paintings to mixed media collage, video, and sculptural installation.

Drawing influence from Gilles Deleuze’s ‘Corps san Organes’ (The Body Without Organs) and the later works of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poetry, Cruz explored the nuances of gender queerness, race, and public and private space. Part of Deleuze’s Corps Sans Organes, explored the physical, emotional, and metaphorical disjunction between the body, society, and structures, ideas which Cruz recontextualized in his work. Cruz inferred similar concepts from Garcia Lorca’s work, which was concerned with voyeurism of the body, and constructing binary identities that exist behind the closet door and within the public space.

Cruz examineed these important concepts through dramatic tonal shifts that range from pastel to darkened shades of grey that rendered sinewy and supple male forms with exposed flaccid phalluses. Each composition commanded the viewer to engage with the figures in a manner that was inescapably voyeuristic and titillating; the paintings complicated the heteronormative perception of male identity. The positioning of the subjects directly referenced Balthus’s paintings of young women and girls, only replacing the figures with adult men. In this vein, Cruz managed to both androgenize his subjects and simultaneously hyper sensualize them for further commentary on gender identity.

About the Artist
David Antonio Cruz received his MFA in Painting from Yale University in 2009, and his BFA from Pratt University in 1998. His works have been exhibited widely in institutions such as the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, El Museo del Barrio, The Bronx Museum, and PERFORMA among many others. Most recently, his work was acquired by El Museo del Barrio, and is currently on view in Figure and Form: Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection at El Museo del Barrio.