“Tiptoeing Through the Kitchen, Recent Photography” by Gabriel H. Sanchez

Few artists have had as profound an impact on contemporary photography as Diane Arbus, who before her passing in 1971 at the age of forty-eight had established a creative road map for navigating the complex psychic and cultural landscapes of our modern world with, miraculously, only a camera. While “Tiptoeing Through the Kitchen, Recent Photography” was not an exhibition of Arbus’s pictures, it was an affirmation of her legacy in the work of seven artists—William Eric Brown, Sophia Chai, Kevin Landers, Brittany Nelson, Shaun Pierson, Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez, and Sheida Soleimani—whose approaches to the medium are as thoughtful, bold, and innovative as Arbus’s were.

The exhibition borrowed its title from a quote often attributed to Arbus: “Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.” This nervy sense of mischief certainly courses through the work of Pierson, whose six prints effortlessly blended elements of still life and studio portraiture into scenes of queer erotic humor, captured with a certain air of refined elegance. Untitled (The Cowboy) and Untitled (Still Life), both 2024, were suggestive, ambiguous tableaux enlivened by a dash of sexual drama. In the former, the shadow of a classically sculpted man—wearing a Stetson hat and, we surmise, not much else—is cast upon a white wall; an electrical cord plugged into the wall’s outlet dangles from the silhouette’s groin as though it were an unusually long and skinny cock. The latter image is a stunning still life of blueberries, citrus fruits, and an apple core strewn, constellation-like, across a patterned tablecloth. Near the top of the frame lurks a man whose Hanes-brand tighty-whities are pulled down, leaving viewers to wonder what kind of kinky assignation might be taking place between the model and the artist.

Read full review at artforum.com