The Male Domestic: Part 2
The Male Domestic Part 2 reflects Maldonado’s concerns with language and categorization in the discussion and display of art, and parenting. In the cases of form and concept Maldonado suggests the viewer take stock of appearances as an alternative hyper specific categorization that risks moving away from the image or topic at hand.
The objects in the show primarily consist of acrylic paint applied to diapers that have been shaped and mounted on board. The formal elements in Maldonado’s works are in conversation with Blinky Palermo’s Stoffbilder or Cloth Pictures and Piero Manzoni Achrome pieces constructed with stitched fabric. The works in The Male Domestic connect to Maldonado’s own life with the use diapers- objects whose use reflects attitudes conveyed in the Arte Povera movement in which there was an aim to reunify art and life through focusing on the everyday or things that are commonplace.
Extending from Maldonado’s aims of It’s All About Things, the pieces in The Male Domestic resist easy categorization as simple paintings or sculptures. Despite their rectangular frame, the shaped material appears fittingly cast-like as the diapers, whose initial purpose was to be discarded and experience brief use, are molded and mounted, now entirely static, the tabs and bands meant to accommodate movement are now rendered immobile.
The aim to depart from formal categorical constraints is at the forefront of Maldonado’s conceptual approach as well, observing the gendered dichotomies of language pertaining to children. Titles and colors in works such as like Snow White, Hulk, and Strawberry Shortcake point to assumed perceptions of gender. Maldonado additionally engages in wordplay with works like Grey’s Anatomy- suggesting the anatomical accommodations of diapers, and Classic Training referring to classical artist training or education in addition to toilet training with children.
The Male Domestic Part 2 will be exhibited at It’s All About Things and will run from June 10 to July 8, 2017 with an opening reception on June 10 from 12 to 5pm and a closing reception July 5, 6-8 pm. Summer gallery hours are Fridays 10-2pm and by appointment. Regular gallery hours are
Luis Maldonado received an MFA in painting from SUNY Purchase (2005) and his BFA in sculpture from Northern Illinois University(2003). His work has been featured at Susan Eley Fine
Art, New York, NY, at Threewalls, Chicago, IL, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY, DeKalb Gallery, DeKalb, Il, Walker's Point Center for the Arts, Milwaukee,WI, the Cake Shop, New York, NY, the Pinta Art Fair, NY, and the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg, Austria. In 2011, he participated in
Bronx Calling: The First AIM Biennial, Bronx Museum, NY.
Written by Charlie Newton who is an artist and writer living in the Chicago area. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Wheaton College, Massachusetts and a forthcoming MFA from Northern Illinois University. Newton has contributed work to The Sakura Review and Beautiful Decay. He is currently showing paintings in the group exhibition Cream of The Crop at ARC Gallery in Chicago.