Clarity Haynes

New Discretions is proud to present Bodyology, a solo exhibition of paintings by Clarity Haynes. It is her third solo presentation with the gallery.

Bodyolody is intended as a bodacious retort to Donald Trump’s inane and dangerous idea of “gender ideology.” The show centers around large-scale torso portraits of queer and trans artists in Haynes’ circles. Sitters include Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Alannah Farrell, Wells Chandler, Matteline DeVries-Dilling, and Linus Borgo. These influential contemporary artists explore trans joy, melancholy, glamor, erotics, disability, queer Black nonbinary identity, healing, grief, and creative self-fashioning in their own work, which Haynes honors in this exhibition. The evolution of the models in their lives, their work, and their self-definition is all part of the torso paintings.

“Our artistic oeuvres are inseparable from our bodies,” proclaims Haynes. Whether it is Jonathan Lyndon Chase’s chest tattoos of their own unmistakable drawings, Alannah Farrell’s tattoo commemorating their painter grandmother, Ginger Fox, or Wells Chandler’s layered charm necklaces from his life-altering travels in Tibet, Egypt and Thailand, this body of work demonstrates that the torso is a comprehensive site for portraiture; that the body is an altar; and that the body is art.

Most of the works were started four years ago, and during that time, the sitters’ evolution was incorporated into the portraits. Changes include body differences due to gender-affirming hormones, new tattoos, and necklaces or clothing introduced by the models. In this time of the extreme curtailing of bodily autonomy for so many, the celebration of subjectivity and self-determination is crucial. Haynes began her torso portraits in the 90s, as a healing project first for herself, then for friends and others who crossed her path. The accumulated ritual of years of portrait sittings is an inquiry into the philosophy of the body that has gained in depth through its longevity.

Though large-scale torso portraits are the core of the show, there are also smaller-scale inquiries and two altar paintings, relating to youth and age, respectively.

Haynes’ practice includes having models contribute reflections in writing, which serve as a document of the portrait sitting experience.