“Portraits: Performance and Privacy is a series of oil paintings on cradled wood panels that explores femininity being expressed through the male body, depicting imagery of masculinity that is atypical for mainstream media. The works also comment on the idea of the gaze and the contrast in emotion evoked in the viewer when the imagery appears to be more voyeuristic in comparison to something considered performative. The goal of this project is to ask the viewer to reflect on how viewing the work makes them feel, and inspire young gay male audiences to feel more comfortable expressing themselves outside of masculine expectations. The themes explored and the goals set lend themselves to the title of the series, as it contains mostly portraiture and fragments of femininity through the male body in fleeting intimate moments as well as moments inviting consumption.The inspiration for the series stems from personal experience as a gay young man. The initial concept for this project revolved around a narrative structure of personal improvement; however, the narrative aspect became overwhelming causing me to pivot and instead dial in on making it more personal. Conversations about the body and femininity versus masculinity are common within the gay community and both of these topics are subjects that affect me personally. Within the queer space, there is a pressure to achieve an ideal body type of being physically fit and muscular. There is a notion that within a queer space, although femininity is more acceptable especially for aesthetic or comedic purposes, it seems that being more masculine equates to greater desirability. Portraits: Performance and Privacy contains paintings that expose particular actions considered feminine and varying levels of viewership from seemingly voyeuristic to intentionally inviting people to witness. The series is meant to contrast typical representations of masculinity in media especially in terms of the body as the actions/figure captured in the works is considered typically feminine. However, it also invites the viewers, especially younger (queer) audiences to feel more confident about displaying femininity through their own bodies.The paintings were captured from screenshots of reference videos taken by me in private settings including the bathroom and the bedroom. These photos were then cropped to the desired proportions to be used as reference for the works. Each piece is done on an 8-inch by 6-inch cradled wooden panels, in oil paints using refined linseed oil to thin the paint, displayed in a salon style on a wall in order to imitate the feeling of a disposable photo wall in someone’s bedroom. Portraits: Performance and Privacy is meant to defy typical depictions of masculinity and the male body in media, as well as question an audience’s feelings around the assumed consent or lack thereof when viewing another’s body.”