HAVE YOU SEEN ME? centers on the return of the gaze in contemporary self-portraiture created by diverse artists across diverse media. The exhibition features work by Marcel Pardo Ariza, Erica Deeman, Yaron Michael Hakim, and Jamil Hellu.
Marcel Pardo Ariza is a trans visual artist and curator who explores the relationship of representation, kinship, and queerness through constructed photographs, color sets, and installations. Jamil Hellu's work focuses on themes of identity representation and cultural heritage, addressing intersections among race, gender, and sexuality, while amplifying queer histories and challenging the social construct of masculinity. Brazilian-born Hellu claims his Syrian roots and Arab ethnicity, questioning the complexities and stereotypes associated with this background. Yaron Michael Hakim has adopted the formal approach of naturalist illustration to depict imagined anthropomorphic self-portraits. Through these paintings, he examines his South American heritage and the kind of exoticization that has been projected onto him and that he has, in turn, projected onto himself. Erica Deeman's work reflects on diasporic and transnational movements, Black permanence, and the nuances of hybridity within cultural identity. British born Deeman's family roots are in the Caribbean.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication featuring essays by Dr. Santhi Kavuri-Bauer and Dr. Laura E. Pérez with Maya Elisa Pérez Strohmeier. Public programs will include artist talks, and conversations between artists and scholars.
