Bernadette Despujols: I Love You, Man

On the occasion of Miami Art Week, Spinello Projects is hosting Bernardette Despujols‘ solo exhibition:” I Love You, Man“, a body of paintings depicting the men closest to her circle.

The artist turns her gaze and paints the cishet men in her life: friends, lovers, family. Despujols seems to position these men ironically as muses, but the truth is that she defeats irony with pure affinity and care for the people she paints, leaving the men to decide what they want to wear and show about themselves. In the act of portraiture she experiences the vulnerability of these men through their quiet shyness or embarrassment with themselves, ways that would otherwise challenge the supposed status quo of masculinity: harsh, aggressive, aloof, qualities of patriarchy that, for Despujols, imprison men and women in a cycle of violence.