Event Description:

“I Think We Could’ve Been Something” is a Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition by Jorge Ariel Escobar, who is an MFA Candidate in Photography at the University of Wisconsin Madison. The exhibition will be on view from April 10, 2023, to April 22, 2023. A gallery reception will be held on Friday, April 14, 2023, from 5pm to 8pm.

“I Think We Could’ve Been Something” is an ongoing body of work that focuses on queer intimacy and missed connections created through short-term romances. The work considers the idea of hookup culture within the LGBTQ+ community specific to gay and queer men. Originating from the act of meeting men through queer-dating apps such as Grindr, I have begun inviting men whom I’ve met through various means to be photographed in intimate scenes which in turn becomes a way of creating a form of queer intimacy through image-making. My use of the alternative process of lumen printing allows me to queer the photograph by producing pink colors on the silver gelatin surface. This color becomes a visual representation of both the body where the prints mimic how blood rushes to certain points of the body in moments of passion as well as placing these intimate constructed fantasies through rose-tinted glasses further idealizing these short-term romances that “could’ve been something.”

Name: Jorge Escobar

Email: jaescobar@wisc.edu

Phone: (804) 929-0345

Website: https://www.jorgearielescobar.com/