Bettina Hubby in solo exhibition at Lora Reynolds Gallery in Austin 10.8.16

Bettina Hubby
THE SEXUAL BRONZE SHOW
Lora Reynolds Gallery
Austin, Texas
November 19 – January 21

Opening reception: Saturday, November 19, 6-8 pm

Artist Talk: 7pm

Lora Reynolds is pleased to announce The Sexual Bronze Show, an exhibition of sculptures, photographs, and collages by Bettina Hubby—her first show at the gallery.

The sculptures are enigmatic pairs of items—a fresh kiwi and a disposable BIC razor, a yam and a plastic dispenser full of dental floss—that seem to come straight from the grocery store. But each object has been cast in bronze and precisely patinated (permanently colored with chemicals and heat) to appear nearly identical to its referent.

Hubby also depicts each pair of objects in a pair of photographs. One picture shows the two objects as individuals, like a pair of lovers on opposite sides of a king-size bed. The second photograph shows the objects interacting with each other, helping us envision how they might behave behind closed doors. The razor shaves the fuzzy kiwi. The dental floss wraps tightly around a bulging, veiny yam. Hubby’s objects suggest body parts, kinky fantasies, adventurous sex, and lovemaking.

Only occasionally—the donut and the plantain, for example—do the pairings suggest penetration. And rightly so: the most conventional sex act is not on the menu for many people. Pleasure is infinitely variable; some people’s practices might be unrecognizable as sex to some others. The imaginary relationships between Hubby’s pairs are often rather mysterious. What intimacies might a gourd and a ravioli share?

The weekly grocery store advertisements on the gallery walls are found objects in which Hubby has snuck her own image and copy into otherwise untouched compositions. An ad for fresh food and low prices at Ralphs Grocery presents a pork roast (50% off!) with a bubble caption that reads “Put the yum into the Extra Soft Trimmed Loin.”

Clever, provocative, and often hilarious, The Sexual Bronze Show is a celebration of the diversity of bodies and their preferences. The bikinis and boobs and six-pack abs advertisers use to sell us beer, clothes, makeup, cars—so much—represent a narrow, heteronormative view of sex. But the entire spectrum of sexual expression is probably beyond the imagination—much less the experience—of any one person. Sex can be many things, but it should be pleasurable and fun and inventive and plentiful, as it is here.

Born in 1968 in New York, Bettina Hubby lives and works in Los Angeles. Her work and projects have been featured at the Los Angeles Nomadic Division, ForYourArt (Los Angeles), Side Street Projects (Los Angeles), Situation Room (Los Angeles), Wonderloch Kellerland (Los Angeles), and Santa Monica Museum of Art.

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