Program
Artists
Fairs
One Works
Against Value
Taking Matters
Info
Bruce LaBruce / Zoe Barcza
Double Whammy
17.04 – 24.05.2025
I shot my movie Hustler White in 1995 at various locations in and around Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. It was the last gasp of male street prostitution on the Boulevard, and Hustler White, although a fiction film, also served as a documentation of that sordid and storied street scene. I was shooting productions stills on film at the time, and I had a camera that sometimes, when a roll was finished, didn’t rewind completely, so I wasn’t always sure if the roll had already been shot (exposed) or not. This resulted occasionally in me shooting a roll twice, resulting in double exposures. In the case of these 37 images shot during the making of the movie (actually 74 photos taken altogether), the result was rather spectacular, superimposing different scenes from the movie, both indoor and outdoor, over one another to startling effect. Purely unintentional, the images enact a certain magic that could have never been consciously conceived.
(Bruce LaBruce, 2025)
These paintings were made after the LA fires, I was paranoid that my studio and home had been covered in toxic dust from the urban burn zones so I moved in with my boyfriend Skylar in the Valley, where he’s from, which is not downwind of either fire. I had already been thinking of making work that was related to the paintings I made for my first show with Bonny in Paris, paintings of splayed soft Michael Pitt penetrated by paths signifying toxic stuff and the body’s permeability. Mr. Freedom looks like a quick sloppy photoshop collage. Airbrush renders the phone camera image, and paint squeegeed over vinyl cutter stencil makes the halftone image. It’s more minimal and serene than the Michael Pitt paintings. I thought it was funny to call it Mr. Freedom, because I’m stuck in the US and feeling un-free, and to celebrate the abandon of hitting the vape. But I am feeling free as a painter too. I had never seen a painting that looked like this, so that’s a reason for me to do it. Also artists painting their young hot lovers is a very male dominated field, there must be examples of women doing it but off the top of my head I couldn’t think of too many. The other two are back-painted plexiglass with Lil Daddy Roth (of Rat Fink fame) metal car flake. They are loosely inspired by custom car painting techniques, which is related to airbrush, I’ve adapted my own ways to use it that are less toxic than car paints, Lol everything is about avoiding lung harm. It’s ended up being very LA unintentionally, airbrush weed cars hotties.
(Zoe Barcza, 2025)
Hollywood, 1995
C-print.
18 x 13 7/8 in / 45.72 x 35.24 cm
Ed of 3 + 2 AP
Mr. Freedom, 2025
51 x 94 in / 129.5 cm x 238.8 cm
Acrylic on canvas.
White Skinheads on Black Hustlers, 1995
C-print.
14 x 18 in / 35.56 x 45.72 cm
Ed of 3 + 2 AP
Wynnona over Steve Hall and Tony Ward, 1995
C-print.
14 1/8 x 17 3/4 in / 35.88 x 45 cm
Ed of 3 + 2 AP
Hustler White/Hustler Black, 1995
C-print.
14 1/8 x 17 3/4 in / 35.88 x 45 cm
Ed of 3 + 2 AP
Scott Thompson and Paul Bellini On Set, 1995
C-print.
14 1/8” x 17 3/4” / 35.88 x 45 cm
Ed of 3 + 2 AP
Ron Athey as Seymour Kasabian at the Pierce Brothers Mortuary / James shooting Piglet, 1995
C-print.
18 x 13 7/8 in / 45.72 x 35.24 cm
Ed of 3 + 2 AP
Cahuenga, 2025
24 x 18 in / 60.96 x 45.72 cm
Acrylic and Lil Daddy Roth flake on plexiglass.
Otsego, 2025
24 x 18 in / 60.96 x 45.72 cm
Acrylic and Lil Daddy Roth flake on plexiglass.
Bruce, Billy, and Heidi, 1995
C-print.
14 1/8 x 17 3/4 in / 35.88 x 45 cm
Ed of 3 + 2 AP
Tony Ward over Black Hustler, 1995
C-print.
14 1/8 x 17 3/4 in / 35.88 x 45 cm
Ed of 3 + 2 AP