Golden Looking Hour at Transformer features paintings by Anthony Le at his first solo exhibition in Washington, DC. The exhibition features portraits of fellow DC artists that questions the social construct of identity and how it can be limiting from the outside looking in but be expansive from the inside looking out. The portrait series celebrates the diversity of local artists but also subverts the cultural expectations that come with that.

“DC artists are expected to be political activists and to represent the racial and/or gender groups they may be part of. Although artists can make work about these issues, the assumption that they should is intrusive and can limit a fuller understanding of their art. For this series, I asked fellow artists to take photos of themselves as a response to being put into boxes due to their outward identity. The portraits are based on these photos, and I am excited about how the paintings look back at you in subversive ways, ranging from ambivalence to a conscious confrontation to being looked at,” explains Le.

The painted figures bask in golden hour light that Le describes as “imbuing a restorative energy of contemplation, autonomy and self-determination.” The portraits express an intimacy conveyed through life-sized scale, a warping of interior space and a limited color palette that gravitates around golden hour yellow.

The paintings are situated within a site-specific installation at Transformer featuring a trompe l'oeil brick pattern as a framing device to reinforce the construct of access into identity and a visual metaphor between interior and exterior personhood. The trompe l'oeil, made with linocut prints on paper, creates the illusion of being surrounded by two-story buildings where the paintings are windows to peek into voyeuristically. The trompe l'oeil covers three sides of the gallery, creating a sense of enclosure like a panopticon, and the two floors of paintings reinforce the feeling of you being observed as much as you’re observing the paintings. The installation is especially apropos to the Transformer space which previously was an alleyway. This alleyway history was also explored in Rebecca Key’s 2010 exhibition Archetype in the same space.

Anthony Le’s work centers on the disjointedness of his Asian American identity. Made over the past two years, these paintings provide a glimpse into Le’s evolving attitudes on masculinity, femininity, injustice and identity. Negotiating images of Americana and various Asian culture, Le paints narrative scenes that sift through history and cultural expectations to reveal complex layers of identity. The portraits explore color, light and space to create scenes that are more daydream than reality. The works feature people close to Le and public figures he admires to highlight how identity is constantly provoked by internal and external forces.

The exhibit features pairings of acrylic paintings, weaving together public and private narratives. The paintings show vignettes of vulnerability that Le describes as “sometimes painful but always valid and valued.” The work asks questions about the Asian American experience, and in that search for commonality, others are welcome to listen in.

Artists and lovers Anthony Le and Ashley Jaye Williams strip each other during this live printing while exploring evolving ideas on sex, identity and injustice. The pieces printed during this performance became part of the couple’s clothing line: The Model Mutiny. Music was made in collaboration with Canine Teeth.

This performance was part of the Disco Spooktacular presented by The Model Mutiny and Littleface Events at the Disco DC by Swatchroom.