ason Horowitz’s provocative large-scale and extreme close-up photographs of expressive drag queens conjure a multitude of reactions. Horowitz continues his ongoing interest in exploring the intersection of landscape and portraiture and how hyper-realism morphs into abstraction. Shot with the same “glamour” lighting set-up used for fashion images, these photographs subvert that process to look at what is real rather than ideal. In the new body of work entitled DRAG, a new psychological element enters the artist’s earlier explorations of faces and bodies. The theatrical artifice of the make-up, similar to a mask, is at once concealing and revealing. We find ourselves shocked, drawn in, immersed, fascinated, yet a bit squeamish. Horowitz masterfully plays with the tension between attraction and repulsion. The over-the-top vamping and exhibitionist joy of drag queens is tempered by a simultaneous sadness and introspection. By exploding scale, Horowitz reveals not only the fascinating visual terrain of the face but also challenges our own hidden biases about femininity and masculinity, beauty and ugliness, gay culture, race, sexuality, and aging. Horowitz initiated this series by shooting Washington DC’s acclaimed drag queen, Shi-Queeta Lee. When Horowitz uses extreme close-up techniques for his large-scale photos of drag queens, the heavy make-up and intense facial expressions, often cropped, make for work that borders on the abstract. The high gloss that is sometimes interpreted as glamour is like paint on a canvas, but the backdrop is human skin and experience, so the effects of the narrative are much more in-your-face. The drama is evident for all to see. For more information or to get in touch with the artist just visit the link below.
www.jasonhorowitzfineart.photoshelter.com
