I checked out this great series of ball point pen drawings by artist Shauna Born at Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects in Toronto this past weekend. There are a lot of elements that I like in this work. The fact that there are so many portraits to look at, the diversity yet commonality in the aesthetic, and the love of drawing that comes through. The works are unframed which makes them personal yet somehow the subjects are impersonal, that's interesting to me. There is also something worthwhile about exploring the objectification (and idealization) of young men e.g. teen idols. There is an androgyny to the features that I find amusing because I think that a lot of what these young girls (or most likely commerce makes them) respond to is a weird projection of ideals of both the masculine and the feminine.
"This series of intimate, delicately rendered portraits explore issues of desire and mortality through the idealization of beautiful male types. Working from a variety of sources, Born shifts the context in which these images exist—the screen and magazine—to re-imagine them as poetic dandies and romantic heroes, steeped in classic pictorial tradition."
The show is on until July 29th, so check it.
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