A screenshot of a cascade of images on a blog.
A screenshot of the Tumblr blog with paintings paired with their sources.
A brightly colored painting of a young man.
A sample painting from the series.
A painting side-by-side with a list of comments and reblog notifications.
A screenshot of a painting paired with its responses in the app.

tramps-l’oeil

2011-2014
Description

tramps-l’oeil is a series of over 300 paintings intended as a call-and-response subversion of the male gaze on tumblr.

The blog was an anonymous performance, and much of the speculation by visitors failed to discern it as anything but fandom. The paintings were numbered and shared back-to-back with the source images, including cryptic titles sourced from songs, poems, and films.

The original blog is still available on Tumblr, with some source images now removed for violations with Tumblr’s new TOS.

Concept & History

Each painting appropriates a a photo of male model, drawing attention to how fashion photography as a genre itself appropriates the compositions and conventions of classical painting, while stripping them of historical context and conceptual complexity.

Production Details
  • over 300 paintings and drawings, primarily made on paper
  • selections exhibited in Outlet’s “SFW: Male Nudes by Female Painters” in 2017
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