Queer Art Exposé Quaint Peche Takes Over Mammal Gallery

Arts

Oct 8

Featured

Quaint Peche is French for “quaint peach”: charming, unassuming, a juicy, fuzzy snack, our state’s heirloom fruit, and the name of a non-masc Sherwin Williams color that artist Patrick Di Rito discovered while perusing interior paint. Kicking off Pride Weekend, this “collective queer exposé” explores one’s relationship between sexuality/identity with persona, environment, and objects, binding the distinctly different styles of these five Georgia-based photographers into one remarkable show debuting Friday, October 9th at Mammal Gallery.

Patrick Di Rito titled each piece after paint splotches, arranging objects and colors for monochromatic design that harbors meaning beyond the initial glance. Inspired by a Rem Koolhaas quote from Colours, Patrick places color context alongside his own exploration of identity, lending a sort of sexual tension between the objects and Patrick himself as a primary subject. By breaking down cultural codes of colors, especially those associated with the cis-female, Patrick compiles how these colors relate to his own coming out process.

Erin Branch’s series shakes the dichotomy of what it is to be in a queer partnership and queer in general. Portraits of Erin and her partner (the aforementioned) Patrick have slight nuances of dress, position, and expression, showing the varieties of ways a seemingly “heterosexual couple” are anything but. Rejecting traditional gender roles and embracing love without boundaries, Erin’s work is strong and intimate, creating a dialogue about specific queer relationships that often go overlooked in both a sea of hetero- and homonormativity.

Taylor McCormick comments on “feminine” dress via feet in heels, with everything above the upper thigh obscured in these surrealistic shots. All of Taylor’s subjects are women who identify on the LGBTQA spectrum but the viewer is given no note of the subject’s faces, questioning the expectations and sexualization society places on femme clothing. Navigating queer identity inherently associated with heteronormative performance, Taylor attempts to solidify a queer identity outside of gay stereotypes, showing a philosophical side to her bold and highly stylized photographs.

Kyle Henderson’s American Male Homosexual Peel and Stick series is pure pop, a foray away from typical photography into installation art where in the end removing the image physically destroys the images. Part R. Longo’s dancing drawings and part gay porn teasers as Lisa Frank stickers, his series features singular men, with the exception of two men turned away, perhaps representing the distance of post-casual encounters, temporary emblems of the shiny holographic void in the digital sphere of Grindr and hook-up culture.

Andrew Sisk’s personal work reflects his spiritual connection to nature as well as a comfort found within the drag community. An image of Sisk held by a queen, both nude in a creek, conjures a mystical hint of Madonna and Child, baptisms, and esoteric ritual. Andrew’s affinity for landscape photography outside of his commercial work, and personal connection to natural environments in general, are further embraced in this dynamic imagery that even in black and white are lush amongst the thickness of a heavily wooded area.