LISSA RIVERA – BEAUTIFUL BOY
2017-05-15Lissa Rivera’s “Beautiful Boy” portraits revel in gender as a repertoire.— Stephen Vider, social and cultural historian
On the subway one evening, Lissa Rivera’s new friend BJ shared that throughout college he had almost exclusively worn women’s clothing. However, after taking a professional job, he felt much less free to explore gender. Lissa, having struggled through her own fraught relationship with the demands of proscribed femininity, suggested to BJ that perhaps photographs might help create a space for him to explore his identity outside isolation.
Lissa writes: “Taking the first pictures was an emotional experience. I connected with my friend’s vulnerability. I wanted to make sure that the images were not a compromise for either of us, and we engaged in many discussions.”
Eventually, Lissa and BJ found themselves falling in love. Now romantic partners, the two are collaborators who have sought to “perform and reshape gender individually and as a couple,” writes Stephen Vider. Rivera revels in the visual pleasure an intimate muse can inspire, as so many male artists have experienced historically.
Exhibition runs from June 1st to July 15th, 2017
Opposite – Motel, Virginia, 2015
ClampArt521
531 West 25th Street
New York
NY 10001
