Mancave, Psychomagic, Snakehole
Jacques de Beaufort Self Portrait
Lake Worth gallerist and artist Jacques de Beaufort pays homage to 42 artist/musician/creative friends in the portrait series Deep Inside the Man Cave. The series was sparked by the offer of a friend to do a portrait of Beaufort himself. After having spent several years showing the work of others in his former gallery space UNIT1, he felt it was time to start creating again and found inspiration in the creative people with whom he spends much of his time.
The series celebrates the Lake Worth artist community as much as it does the individual subjects in the portraits. The emerging South Florida art scene can be hard to pinpoint. Miami has an already highly commercialized Wynwood and Art Basel, but it can be difficult to define as a whole exactly what and where the “arts” community is and how much of an influence it has on the culture at large.
This makes the small creative enclaves like the one in Lake Worth all the more important and all the more closely knit. Beaufort points out that the subject of his series will also be its audience. When the show opens mid-December, many of the people in the gallery will be looking at images of themselves and their friends.
Deep Inside the Man Cave is not only a practice in the lost art of the portrait, it is an acknowledgement of male friendship and creative collaboration.
There is a central question and criticism which Beaufort has already encountered of his all male revue: Where are the women? Where are the female artists and creatives who have contributed just as much to the artistic community? It’s an easy question, but it is a fair question.
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The portrayal of male subjects is actually a departure for the artist. Looking back on Beaufort’s body of work, the undeniably intriguing and beautiful images are more likely to be female than male. At the same time, those female subjects are often depicted with a distinct sensuality, sexuality, a feminine mystique that reeks of a highly desired yet unattainable otherness.
Beaufort says that he has tended to portray women in a more idealistic way. It’s been more about surface and beauty. With the men, it was never about that. As he worked from photographs of his subjects, he was looking more at their character, their flaws, their idiosyncrasies. He hopes to carry that new perspective over to future portrayals of women.
There’s a sort of psychomagic at play here. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s psycho-spiritual theory, psychomagic, claims that psychological realizations can be truly transformative when manifested by concrete poetic acts. In the case of Beaufort and his travels deep inside the man cave, the intentional genderizing of the project forced the artist to contemplate his perspectives of both women and men.
Single sex environments often allow the individual to emerge beyond the cultural expectations for one’s gender. The individuals in the portraits may have all been male, but they were able to rise above the trappings of idealized masculinity and tropes of toxic masculinity, coming to life on the canvas, each with their own unique quirks and weirdness.
This philosophical talk is perhaps too serious for the sense of lighthearted humor and celebration of friendship with which Beaufort approached the series. He’s taken a usually solitary artistic endeavor and made it communal. The opening reception will be full of fun and friends which also includes a DUDEBRO costume contest. The guest who comes dressed as the best dudebro will win a small drawing of him/herself (or a friend).
Psychomagic
Later in the evening, Portland psychedelic surfer garage rock band Psychomagic will take the stage. Psychomagic just released “Safe Sex” their first single from their third album, Mentally Ill on Lolipop Records. While Beaufort has spent the last several months investigating his friends’ individuality, Psychomagic will spend late November and December on their cross-country Mentally Ill tour dealing with each other’s quirks. Vocalist and guitarist Steven Fusco describes being in a band as like having four girlfriends–the relationship is really intimate and you have to be super aware.
Fusco says that it helps that all the members are friends. While being friends with people in your band isn’t necessary to make good music together, it is necessary for having a band you like to be in. It also doesn’t hurt to actually be having fun when you’re singing lyrics imbued with unexpected humor over deceptively trippy and melodic tunes.
Snakehole
The show thus far has been painted as an exclusively male affair, but that is not entirely so. You’ll have the opportunity to cathartically rage against the patriarchy (or just rage) when Snakehole takes the stage.
Bring all your guy AND gal friends to travel Deep Inside the Man Cave, sponsored by LULA Lake Worth Arts, on December 12 at the Jacques de Beaufort Studio/Gallery 1202 Lucerne Ave, Unit 1 in Lake Worth. The opening reception begins at 5pm for viewing. The music portion of the evening, presented by PureHoney will begin at 10pm with Psychomagic and Snakehole. Learn more about all things de Beaufort at JacquesDeBeaufort.com.
~ Jessica Chesler
