Sophia Wallace - DeVohn No. 2, from the series Modern Dandy, 2010

Sophia Wallace - DeVohn No. 2, from the series Modern Dandy, 2010
  • Title: DeVohn No. 2, from the series Modern Dandy, 2010
  • Dimensions: 48 x 32 in.
  • Materials: pigment print
  • Primary Medium: photography
  • Year Created: 2010
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Artwork Description


Modern Dandy, 2010 The dandy–conventionally defined as a strikingly attractive man whose dress is immaculate and manor is dignified–has been around since the late eighteenth century. Often misunderstood as superficial, the dandy is rather a space of creative possibility where men and women can perform a persona in ways that reach far beyond the narrow binary constructs of masculine and feminine. Indeed artists like Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire, H.H Monro and less recognized women such as the American painter Romaine Brookes and her cohorts found Dandyism to be a liberatory space not only for appearance but more importantly, for a life of independence that did not necessarily adhere to a deterministic heterosexual model of marriage and children. Examples of modern dandies include Andy Warhol, Quentin Crisp, Grace Jones, Tilda Swinton and Janelle Monae. My many years focusing on gender, race and constructions of beauty led me to dandyism as a radical position for art making and social critique. Indeed, dandyism’s subversive aesthetic of beauty disrupts normative gender in fascinating ways. Beauty is defined in almost all contexts as the domain of femininity which is commonly understood as frivolous, weak and passive. The dandy is neither traditionally feminine or masculine. Rather, the dandy is an aestheticized androgyny available to men, women and transgender individuals. Herein lies it’s power and it’s danger. Recognition for Modern Dandy Sophia Wallace's series Modern Dandy was a Recipient of PDN's 'The Curator Award', 2011 and 'Critic's Pick' by the Griffin Museum of Photography. It also received Honorable Mention in Magenta Flash Forward 2011. Four large scale (48 x 32 inches) pigment prints from the series were shown at MiLK Gallery, July, 2011. Installation views may be seen here: http://culturehall.com/sophia_wallace

Sophia Wallace

Sophia Wallace

Sophia Wallace (b. 1978) is an artist based in New York City. Wallace was a recipient of PDN’s Curator Award, Critic's Pick by the Griffin Museum of Photography, a winner of American Photography AP-25 and a winner of ARTslant's Showcase Award. Wallace exhibits regularly in New York and Internationally. Notable shows include an upcoming exhibition at KUNSTHALLE Wien contemporary museum in Vienna, Austria titled 'No fashion, please!' which will be on view Nov. 9, 2011 - January 222, 2012 and ‘A Fine Line: Private Lives for Public View’ a four person exhibition at Colgate Clifford Gallery with Catherine Opie, Jo Ann Santangelo and Jason Hanasik running November 11 - Dec 18 2011. Most recent shows include NUTUREart a benefit at the Chelsea Museum of Art, October 2011 and an exhibition of Modern Dandy at MiLK Gallery in July, 2011. Her solo exhibition 'The New Masculine' was at Leslie-Lohman Gallery in Soho, New York November of 2010. Additional exhibitions in New York include the Affordable Art Fair, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, TASCHEN Gallery, Aperture Gallery and Sasha Wolf Gallery. She has also shown at Kopeikin Gallery, Carnegie Art Museum in California and at The Assembly Room in London. She often lectures about her work at Universities and Colleges. Wallace graduated with Honors from Smith College in 2000 and received her MA in Photography from New York University and the International Center of Photography in 2005. I believe that images have the power to shape society – seductively claiming authority over what is, what was and what is possible. Working in photography and more recently video, I create conceptual portraits. In my practice, I examine how subjects are used in photography to re-inscribe power. The medium of photography is deployed to great affect in the globalization of the notion of the ideal. Who is important? Who is beautiful? What does it mean to be a woman, a man, a transcendent subject? I utilize lens based media for the inherent tension in the medium between truth and fiction which allows me to construct, critique and document at the same time. I’m interested in the democratic potential of photography, it’s legibility to all who can see. Photography allows me to communicate beyond the limitations of my spoken language and the time that I live in. I deploy my work as an aesthetic disruption. I problematize the institutionalization of normativity as it relates to the historical record, the creation of the ideal versus the perverse and finally the construction of the marginal subject utilized to confirm the superiority of the author. My practice is grounded in queer, feminist and critical race theory. Publishing, blogging, social media and online dialog are a vital facet of my practice. The internet allows me to connect with counter-publics whose cultural works are also often restrained within normative discourses.

Website: sophiawallace.com

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