David Antonio Cruz
182.9 x 121.9 cm.
72 x 96 in. (overall)
182.9 x 243.8 cm.
Two of the figures are posed upside down as a way to deconstruct the social norms regarding how subjects historically sit for paintings, offering them full control and ownership over the body and their representation, and encouraging a different way to be seen. This intergenerational portrait depicts a group of queer BIPOC men, many of which are in their 50s, whom the artists affectionately refers to as the DC Boys. Tracing the limbs, arms, hands, and legs, reveals a circle of protection formed through touch, guarding the othered body, the queer body, the alien body, the black body.
Referencing the physiologically charged artificial spaces created in Francis Bacon paintings, the immersion of the figures within the background creates a protective border for their authentic queer identities to be held.