Andrew Kuebeck, assistant professor and head of jewelry/metals/enameling, has a solo show titled, "MANual Labor" at the Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art, in the Center for Art and Theater at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA. The exhibition runs from Sept. 20 through Oct. 15. Kuebeck will be giving a gallery talk Thursday, Sept. 30 in the University Gallery. The artist talk will begin at 5:15 in the gallery and a Zoom option is available for guests who cannot attend in person. Register on the gallery’s website.
Artist Statement:
In my own work and research I find that I am constantly returning to certain themes. Narrative, personal history, the nude, and props are all components that frequently emerge in my work and are touchstones which I find myself returning to. These returning interests found cohesion with my exploration in the genre of beefcake photography. Photographers like Bob Mizer, Bruce Bellas (Bruce of LA), and Pat Milo all produced work during the 1950’s and 60’s that skirted the moral codes of the time while still being able to create humorous, erotic, and striking works of immense depth. In their images I found great inspiration, and in an amalgam of their iconography and the techniques I so loved within jewelry and metalsmithing my work truly began to take shape. In my own work I am interested in the display and concealment of identity, gender and masculinity. For me the genre of beefcake photography, one which blends comical post war masculinity with an internalized angst about human sexuality, finds resonance in our contemporary struggle to define ourselves and how that outward display unfolds.
Image: Andrew Kuebeck, Silhouette BROoch #9, 2021, Copper, Basswood; Installation of "MANual Labor" at Georgia Southern University