
Joseph Abbati
Red Bull, 2024
Acrylic on Canvas
24 × 20 × 1 1/2 in
© Joseph Abbati
$2,000.00
The "Bulls Eyes" series of paintings from Joseph Abbati, presents a provocative fusion of human and animal forms, using male torsos that blur the boundary between bull and man. The headless, limbless figures are stripped of traditional identity markers, with human eyes replacing nipples and horns emerging from their armpits, creating a surreal yet powerful commentary on body, power, and perception.
The "Bulls Eyes" series of paintings from Joseph Abbati, presents a provocative fusion of human and animal forms, using male torsos that blur the boundary between bull and man. The headless, limbless figures are stripped of traditional identity markers, with human eyes replacing nipples and horns emerging from their armpits, creating a surreal yet powerful commentary on body, power, and perception. This juxtaposition symbolizes a negotiation of identity, where the human form is both celebrated and distorted, reflecting a tension between primal instincts and societal constructs. By blending bull-like aggression and strength with human vulnerability-manifested through the intimacy of eyes on chests and horns from unexpected places-the series explores themes of masculinity, transformation, and queer identity. The bull is often an archetype of raw power, dominance, and traditional masculinity, but here it is fractured, reshaped, and softened by the human element. The eyes, traditionally symbolic of perception and inner truth, appear in places associated with desire and intimacy, creating a dialogue about the male body as both object and subject of the gaze. In the context of queer culture, these paintings deconstruct the rigid, normative depictions of masculinity and expose an alternative form of strength-one that embraces fluidity and defies binary constructs. The fusion of horns may symbolize the hidden or repressed elements of identity, while the unsettling placement of eyes hints at the experience of being seen and judged through a nonconforming lens. "Bulls Eyes" reclaims the male body as a site of transformation, defiance, and multiplicity, celebrating queerness not as "other," but as an evolving, empowered state of being.
Provenance
Never owned.Exhibitions
"BoldFace" Group Invitational, Radian Gallery, San FranciscoJoin our mailing list
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