Painting Bitten by a Man is an illustrated catalog from the exhibition featuring Brian Kokoska and Jonathan VanDyke, featuring works by both artists, art historical illustrations, and documentation of the opening night performance, Cordoned Area, for two lovers by Jonathan VanDyke. Both of the artists work with paint, queering both its historical resonance and contemporary application. Each manipulates the medium to embody a push and pull between concealment and display, perhaps even “perverting” the very act of disclosure – the disclosure of hidden histories, rumors and fantasies, and “private” sex acts – in relation to painterly gestures and re-presentation. Their diverse bodies of work present a harmonious but complex merging of two distinct “painting” styles and introduce individual contemporary queer sensibilities through various approaches to figuration, abstraction, and materiality.
Essays:
“Painting Bitten by a Man” by exhibition curator Andrew Suggs
“Silent, Focused, Unwavering: The Normal Queer” by critic LIsa Liebman
“A Grotesque Seduction” by independent curator and writer Christopher Eamon
Edited by Andrew Suggs
46 pages, full color, $15
