Michael Young

Hidden Glances
September 4, 2023 - November 3, 2023
150 Wakefield Street, Rochester, NH 03867
Reception: October 7, 2023 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Michael Young is a lens-based artist whose work explores themes of masculinity, personal identity, community, and memory. He has been named a Top 10 winner of LensCulture Critics’ Choice, a Top 50 artist in Photolucida’s Critical Mass, and a winner of Feature Shoot’s Emerging Photography Award.

Recent shows include Candela’s Unbound12! and Una historia (no) tan rosa at Archivo Arkhé in Madrid. Young’s images have also been exhibited in Portfolio 2023 at Atlanta Photography Group, Art of Pride at Southeast Center for Photography, Bodily Autonomies at Queer Festival Heidelberg, Center Forward 2022 at Center for Fine Art Photography, and Context 2022 at Filter Photo.

Young’s work has been published in Musée Magazine, Fisheye, LINDA.meiden, and two issues of Der Greif. Online features, articles, interviews, and shows include LensCulture, Humble Arts Foundation, Fraction Magazine, Talking Photographs, The Guardian, Float, and F-Stop Magazine.

Hidden Glances is a series of photographs constructed from vintage gay pornographic calendars published between the years when I was beginning to recognize my sexuality as a youth until I came out.

Each image is an amalgam of two figures that originally appeared in the same calendar. In the top layer the male body has been spliced from his scene and the figureless image is laid on top of a second image. Through the negative space of the absent figure, a censured portion of the figure beneath is revealed. The construction is then photographed, thus bringing both layers onto the same seamless photographic plane.

This compression of space, along with the duality of revealing and concealing, become a metaphor for the numerous years when my gaze upon other men was tentative and fleeting, fearful that those stolen glimpses would expose my homosexuality.

Furthermore, the photographs remove the source material from their original intention—that of gratuitous imagery for sexual stimulation. A new narrative is constructed in which the viewer is invited to consider how pornography can be used to inform more reflective conversations about the male body, the coming-out process, and the struggles that so many gay men and I have encountered. On a more universal level, the work explores themes of self-acceptance, shame, fear, and personal secrets.

More information and sales inquiries

Related Posts

Open Call: RMFA and Creative Guts to present Kaleidoscope

September 1, 2023

The Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, in collaboration with Creative Guts, is pleased to present Kaleidoscope, a colorful, open call exhibition. 12-inch by 12-inch (including frame) visual works in any medium are welcome. The Board of Directors for Creative Guts’ will jury the works for inclusion. Submissions for Kaleidoscope are due by October 1, 2023,…

Zach Tinker

For the Plot
September 4, 2023 - November 3, 2023
150 Wakefield Street, Rochester, NH 03867
Reception: October 7, 2023 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Zach Tinker, a talented artist hailing from New Ipswich, New Hampshire, has dedicated most of his life to the pursuit of artistic expression. With a deep-rooted passion for painting, skateboarding, and photography, Zach has seamlessly merged his interests to create captivating works of art that resonate well with viewers. Drawing inspiration from a diverse range…

RMFA to present works by Andrew Hillman at the Public Library

5 Dimensional
July 14, 2023 - September 29, 2023
Reception: September 16, 2023 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

The Rochester Museum of Fine Arts is pleased to announce “5 Dimensional ”, an exhibition featuring a series of works by Andrew Hillman at the Rochester Public Library. Andrew Hillman, a Bolivian-born artist, draws inspiration from the rich cultural heritage of his Inca roots and his love for art and music. Throughout his life, Andrew…

Ralph Morse

From Moments to Masterpieces
July 3, 2023 - September 1, 2023
150 Wakefield Street, Rochester, NH 03867
Reception: August 5, 2023 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Born with an innate passion for capturing moments, Ralph Morse’s artistic journey began after high school when he eagerly embarked on a career in photography. Starting from humble beginnings, he worked alongside a seasoned photographer, sweeping floors and delivering pictures, gradually honing his skills. In 1939, Morse’s relentless dedication paid off when he secured a…

Matt Demers

Good Grief
August 7, 2023 - October 6, 2023
65 South Main Street, Rochester, NH 03867
Reception: September 16, 2023 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Matt Demers is a visual artist living and working in Gardiner, Maine. A quiet person, Demers closely observes the fevered and cross-talking world, absorbing and collecting its art and ephemera, and learning or imagining the meanings that odd objects, forgotten texts, and torn treasures carry with them. Demers is or has been an art and…

Connor Gottfried

Save Game
May 8, 2023 - June 30, 2023
150 Wakefield Street, Rochester, NH 03867
Reception: June 17, 2023 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Connor Gottfried is a multidisciplinary artist, musician, and technologist based in Calgary, Canada. His artistic practice combines elements of technology, music, and visual art to create a unique analog/digital hybrid approach that connects the viewer to lost and obsolete technologies of play. Growing up, Gottfried was exposed to technology at an early age when his…