‘I’m not sure that a male artist, or a heterosexual woman artist, would paint as proudly and freely as this,’ says Anna McNay, curator of two parallel exhibitions on the female gaze in painting and photography today. The duet of shows at New Arts Project in London take the perspective of 12 queer women artists who look at each other, and themselves.
The term the ‘female gaze’ first emerged in opposition to the ‘male gaze’ coined by Laura Mulvey in her seminal essay of 1975, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, to illuminate the way women and their bodies are circumscribed by the patriarchy in culture. But, as McNay asserts, ‘the female gaze is more than just the opposite of the male gaze’. Riffing on the ideas of the radical French feminist writer Hélène Cixous, McNay says that, in 2018, ‘Woman must paint herself, must paint women and bring women to painting, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies. And, to some extent, that is the goal of “Threesome”.’
Stages of Mourning IX, 2000
Interconnected with feminism, non-binary sexuality and gender, in ‘Threesome: an exhibition of three women painters’ three queer women painters attempt to broaden the discussion of the ‘female gaze’ in a direct way. British artists Sarah Jane Moon, Roxana Halls and Sadie Lee have each painted a self-portrait, a portrait of each other and a portrait of a nude model (performance artist Ursula Martinez) to bring the gaze into focus, an enquiry as to whether women see women differently, and how their sexuality affects their gaze on the female subject.
‘The key concern shared by Sarah Jane Moon, Roxana, Sadie and myself was how the gaze of a lesbian might differ from the gaze of a heterosexual woman,’ McNay explains. The portraits range in style and approach – from Lee’s powerfully erotic brushstrokes to Halls’ hallucinogenic pop. However, in their portrayal of Martinez, all three had exaggerated the subject’s crotch. Perhaps a response, McNay proffers, to the centrality of the nipple in the social media censorship maelstrom. ‘They were not unveiled to each other until the night, nor to me or the gallery until two nights before, when they were dropped off for us to hang. There was an element of unity in difference and difference in unity.’
Living Room, 2017
In ‘3x3: an exhibition of nine women photographers’, meanwhile, nine gay female photographers have taken self-portraits, some of them for the first time. ‘Again, it was an experiment in ways of looking, seeing, and being seen. By concentrating solely on their own image, the artists seek to untangle, distinguish, and, in some instances, deliberately re-confuse their own subjectivity and objecthood.’
Is there such a thing, then, as the ‘gay gaze’? ‘As a woman who likes women myself, it is hard to say whether my own gaze, enjoyment of and response to this painting is different from that of a heterosexual woman. There are so many knots and loops in this discussion, but that’s what makes it such an interesting subject to explore,’ McNay says.
Despite navigating the complexities inherent in labelling individuals and their art as ‘queer’ or ‘lesbian’, McNay adds: ‘I do think there is something more specific to the gaze in this exhibition than just the female gaze, even if it can’t be pinned down in linguistic terms. That’s really only something you can find out by coming and looking for yourself and exploring your own gaze and response to the works. ‘The gaze, after all, goes in two directions and may, or may not, be met midway.’
Portrait of Roxana Halls, 2018
INFORMATION
‘Threesome: an exhibition of three women painters’ and ‘3x3: an exhibition of nine women photographers’ are on view until 4 March. For more information, visit the New Art Projects website
ADDRESS
New Art Projects
6D Sheep Lane
London E8 4QS
-
This picky customer finds ‘perfection’ at Nipotina, Mayfair’s new pizza and pasta jointWallpaper* contributing editor Nick Vinson reviews Nipotina, a new Italian restaurant in London offering a carefully edited menu of traditional dishes
-
Giant cats, Madonna wigs, pints of Guinness: seven objects that tell the story of fashion in 2024These objects tell an unconventional story of style in 2024, a year when the ephemera that populated designers’ universes was as intriguing as the collections themselves
-
How 2024 brought beauty and fashion closer than ever before2024 was a year when beauty and fashion got closer than ever before, with runway moments, collaborations and key launches setting the scene for 2025 and beyond
-
Inside the distorted world of artist George RouyFrequently drawing comparisons with Francis Bacon, painter George Rouy is gaining peer points for his use of classic techniques to distort the human form
-
‘I'm endlessly fascinated by the nude’: Somaya Critchlow’s intimate and confident drawings are on show in London‘Triple Threat’ at Maximillian William gallery in London is British artist Somaya Critchlow’s first show dedicated solely to drawing
-
Surrealism as feminist resistance: artists against fascism in Leeds‘The Traumatic Surreal’ at the Henry Moore Institute, unpacks the generational trauma left by Nazism for postwar women
-
Looking forward to Tate Modern’s 25th anniversary partyFrom 9-12 May 2025, Tate Modern, one of London’s most adored art museums, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a lively weekend of festivities
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA week in the world of Wallpaper*. Here's how our editors have been entertaining themselves in the run up to Christmas
-
Love, melancholy and domesticity: Anna Calleja is a painter to watchAnna Calleja explores everyday themes in her exhibition, ‘One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night’, at Sim Smith, London
-
Ndayé Kouagou speaks the language of the chaotic social media influencer in LondonNdayé Kouagou celebrates meandering incoherence with an exhibition, ‘A Message for Everybody’, at Gathering in London
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA snowy Swiss Alpine sleepover, a design book fest in Milan, and a night with Steve Coogan in London – our editors' out-of-hours adventures this week
