(Un)Masked

(Un)Masked explores new ways to imagine identity; rather than through literal representations of the self, this exhibition examines the hidden self, the masked self. (Un)Masked addresses issues of race, gender, and nationality to communicate larger issues within our current socio-political climate. Featuring contemporary work, this exhibition combines video art, collage, painting, and...

(Un)Masked: Zeng Fanzhi

Between 1994 and 2001, Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi painted his socially pertinent 'Mask' series, visualizing the ways in which humans interact and form relationships within the public sphere, and the imaginary masks people wear to conceal their private identity to conform to societal standards. Initially a means to express Fanzhi's personal emotional distress, the artist's 'Mask' series evolved into...

(Un)Masked: Jean-Michel Basquiat

For most of his life Jean-Michel Basquiat fought against social expectations and pressures imposed upon him as a result of his cultural identity. Born to mixed race parents, his father Haitian and mother first-generation Puerto Rican, Basquiat’s racial identity was often misunderstood. Despite an upbringing offering middle-class benefits, Basquiat assumed a more underprivileged appearance, wearing...

(Un)Masked: Adriene Hughes

Emerging photographer Adriene Hughes explores the process of self-definition and the relationship between humans and our most primitive instincts in her series deer/woman. In this series, Hughes turns inward, to her personal battle with cancer and the effects it has had on her identity. In deer/woman Hughes photographs herself; fully dressed in women’s clothing, she wears a deer mask and poses in...

(Un)Masked: Hans Haacke

Han's Haacke's 2004 photograph Star Gazing emerged during a period of political conflict and social unrest. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the war America waged in the Middle East prompted unjust violence against innocent victims in order to reaffirm authority. With heightened censorship imposed upon war-related broadcasting, images from America's war on terror became more powerful, revealing,...

(Un)Masked: Pierre Huyghe

Pierre Huyghe’s film The Host and The Cloud reflects his personal interest in examining human existence under slightly altered conditions, looking at the roles they assume and behaviors in which they engage. To effectively survey the range of human experience in an aesthetic environment charged with art-historical meaning, Huyghe shoots his film at the Musee National des Arts et Traditions Populaires...

(Un)Masked: Brian Bress

Artist Brian Bress, born in 1975 in Norfolk, Virginia, combines his passion for two-dimensional painting, interest in three-dimensional sculpture, and fascination with film art to create collage-like videos that appear fantastical, experimental, psychedelic, and performative, all at the same time. Bress’ playful videos have a synesthetic quality that push the boundaries of art to the point of entertainment,...

(Un)Masked: Wangechi Mutu

Kenyan born and raised Catholic, artist Wangechi Mutu’s own experience of self-definition in America’s male-driven and predominantly white culture has allowed for greater awareness to constructions of identity. Her collage series “History of the Different Classes of Uterine Tumors” responds to contemporary Western pressures concerning standards of beauty, national African identity, and problematic...