Robert Da Rosa

Jock Strap

Portraits: Performance and Privacy is a series of oil paintings on cradled wood panels that is meant to display depictions that defy typical imagery 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. The inspiration for the series stems from personal experience as a gay young man, where there is a pressure to achieve an ideal body type of being physically fit and muscular. Continually, 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. It invites the viewers, especially younger (queer) audiences to feel more confident about displaying femininity through their own bodies.