Jake, Brooklyn, NY

Artist Amy Elkins American, born 1979

Date2006

MediumChromogenic print

Dimensionsimage: 20 × 16in. (50.8 × 40.6cm)
frame: 20 1/2 × 16 1/2 × 1 1/2in. (52.1 × 41.9 × 3.8cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Friends of Photography

Object number2012.13

On View

Not on view

Label TextElkins’s portrait of Jake, one of several from her Wallflower series, questions our societal associations with masculinity and gender. Posing her subject shirtless and against a floral background, Elkins prompts the viewer to examine their own notions of beauty, vulnerability, and strength.

With this series of portraits, Elkins explores, in her words, “the nuances of gender identity and the male psyche,” and presents her subjects stripped of all individual context or in a heightened state of vulnerability through her close-up, intimate framing. Through this method Elkins reverses the traditional male gaze and turns the focus on breaking down masculine stereotypes and expectations.ProvenanceCreated New York, 2006; collection of the artist, New York; [Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York]; sold to NCMA, 2012.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," May 1, 2023–November 30, 2023. Object Rights Statement

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