Manuel Pena

I am a visual artist, working primarily in photographic media. Working with traditional c-prints, digital imagery and collage, I am trying to create images that reference the nostalgia of youth, burgeoning sexuality and the homoerotic gaze. Grappling with the rigid sexual binary of the homo/hetero in western society, I am extremely interested in issues concerning the profound structures of the self, particularly when it comes to sexual identity and gender identity. Using humor, the power of unconscious fantasy and sexual imagery, I confront the stereotypical and often dysfunctional ideas of masculinity. Issues dealing with identity, desire and the artifice of the masks we are forced to wear, are at the core of my search to understand how gender organizes and disorganizes society.