My Eyes Are Starving for Beauty
Site Specific Installation and Performance by Anthony Sonnenberg
August 23 – October 5, 2024
Image by Cynthia Post-Hunt, courtesy of the artist.
My Eyes Are Starving for Beauty is a site-specific installation and performance in celebration of the role that beauty and fantasy have played in queer self-empowerment for the last century and beyond. Sonnenberg draws inspiration from past gay cultural icons such as Divine, whose song I am Beautiful musicalizes the exhibition's performance soundtrack, and André Leon Talley's words, which inspired the exhibition title. These, and other creatives like them, stood out for their ability to defy traditional beauty standards, becoming fashion icons for their completely unique, uncompromising style, and their outsized impacts on the worlds of fashion, film, music, and pop culture.
Using common materials, such as recycled clay, thrift store blankets, and scrap lumber, the artist, (a fat gay man) seeks to create a moment of pure fantasy, continuing to defy beauty standards and experience what it means and how it feels to be beautiful.
Member Preview: August 23, 7-8 PM
Opening Reception: August 23, 8-10 PM
(New) Gallery Hours: Saturdays 11 AM-4 PM and by appointment
Big Medium at Culture Complex
About the artist
Born in 1986 in Graham,TX, Anthony Sonnenberg earned a BA with an emphasis in Italian and Art History in 2009 and an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2012. His work which ranges from porcelain to performance has been shown across the United States and Internationally. Mr. Sonnenberg lives and works in Fayetteville AR.
Notable recent exhibitions include; State of the Art II, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR (2020); I’m Going to Dance the Way I Feel - Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami FL (2021) Ceramics Now - Galerie Italienne - Paris, France (2021) Cannons Buried in Flowers, Gavlak Gallery. Los Angeles Ca (2023).
Notable Residences include; Windgate Museum Of Art Inaugural Artist-In-Residence (2021); CSULB-CCC Summer Resident Artist, California State University, Long Beach, CA (2018); Yaddo Artist Residency - Saratoga Springs, NY (2017); Resident at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX (2016) Emerging Artist in Residence at Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood WA (2012).
Image courtesy of the artist.
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