In his upcoming solo exhibition Building identities through style, Glenn Hardy Jr. explores the layers of fashion, especially how identities are formed and perceived through appearance.
Based in Washington, DC, Hardy is a self-taught painter whose bold portraits highlight black lives “liberated from the burdens of racial stereotypes and conflict,” says Charlie James Gallerywho currently hosts the show. The figures in Hardy’s compositions often engage in everyday leisure activities or settle into places of refuge and camaraderie, such as studios, athletic tracks, and domestic spaces.
Building identities through style emphasizes fashion as more than just personal expression or “self-celebration,” as described in a statement. Hardy explores the complexities of clothing, trends and luxury through the lens of desire and access, juxtaposing elements of reality and fantasy, especially in a series of paintings of mannequins superimposed on realistic faces, like individual characters joined together as their custom-made clothes take shape.
The artist is interested in how sartorial choices point to complex systems of negotiation and judgment that inform our understanding of conformity, difference and a sense of belonging. “Hardy explores not only the ways in which black bodies are seen and judged, but also the ways in which stylistic excellence has become both a reputational armor and a source of joy, experimentation and play,” the gallery says.
“Soar Thumb,” for example, portrays a group of men in an elevator, all but one of whom are dressed in nearly identical suits and have short haircuts. The outlier is a tall person with cool dreadlocks and a white tank top, who stands confidently with his arms crossed and stares directly at the viewer.
Hardy understands the contrast not as an act of rebellion, but as a way to analyze how some, within a shared space, find conformity to bring a sense of security or comfort, while others view individual expression as – in addition to its liberating nature – a kind of buffer or armor.
“The appropriate figures are not antagonists, but participants in the same system of social evaluation, using uniformity as protection,” a statement said. “The outlier is not a hero or an enemy; he is unmasked. The work does not ask which presentation is more authentic, but what each form of visibility costs.”
Building identities through style continues through February 7 in Los Angeles. Learn more about Hardy’s Instagram.
