Overview

Bare torsos, totemic altars, evocations of childbirth and gender fluidity form the basis for Haynes’ visceral, carnal oil paintings Willem de Kooning once stated that flesh was the reason oil paint was invented. To artist Clarity Haynes (born 1971), the correlation between flesh and paint is alchemical. Portals is the first survey celebrating her paintings. The book explores her approach to nontraditional portraiture informed by feminism and gender interrogation, starting with her seminal The Breast/Chest Portrait Project, ongoing for the past 25 years; her series of trompe l’oeil Altars; and her new Crowning series. With her depictions of blood, Haynes revels in the abject and transcendent, in defiance of the taboo subject of childbirth in the history of art. Her queer activist point of view shifts the gaze to a decidedly visceral, sensual engagement with paint, challenging what bodies can be.

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"[Clarity Haynes] takes on this powerful visual moment with levels of abstraction that rivet us and edge into beauty. Queering birth. Crownings, Open bodies.--Saltz Jerry Considering the show in the context of today's political climate, it's impossible to ignore the sociopolitical resonance of Haynes' subject matter at hand.--Rachel Summer Small ""Family Style"" Haynes is a freedom fighter and that is not an easy task. Cleaving birth from the domain of heteronormative futurity, Hayne's paintings are purifying mirrors that reframe gendered trauma, allowing us to experience bodies and rituals in a fresh way. They are literal portals for the mind to unmake implanted agendas that subjugate our ability to inhabit queer futurity. Shown in tandem with the birth paintings, the altars are potent midwives welcoming new life into an affirming realm of queer feminist mysticism.--Wells Chandler ""Electric Pencil"" What artists playing with the unclothed human form today share in common is a fundamental lack of shame. For Haynes, the act of painting the nude is, more than anything else, an antidote to shame.--Julia Halperin ""The New York Times"" This feast of a book brings together the artist's beguiling explorations of childbirth, queerness, gender, and ritual.--Valentina Di Liscia ""Hyperallergic"""

"This feast of a book brings together the artist's beguiling explorations of childbirth, queerness, gender, and ritual.--Valentina Di Liscia ""Hyperallergic"""

This feast of a book brings together the artist’s beguiling explorations of childbirth, queerness, gender, and ritual. -- Valentina Di Liscia * Hyperallergic * Haynes is a freedom fighter and that is not an easy task. Cleaving birth from the domain of heteronormative futurity, Hayne’s paintings are purifying mirrors that reframe gendered trauma, allowing us to experience bodies and rituals in a fresh way. They are literal portals for the mind to unmake implanted agendas that subjugate our ability to inhabit queer futurity. Shown in tandem with the birth paintings, the altars are potent midwives welcoming new life into an affirming realm of queer feminist mysticism. -- Wells Chandler * Electric Pencil * Considering the show in the context of today’s political climate, it’s impossible to ignore the sociopolitical resonance of Haynes’ subject matter at hand. -- Rachel Summer Small * Family Style * [Clarity Haynes] takes on this powerful visual moment with levels of abstraction that rivet us and edge into beauty. Queering birth. Crownings, Open bodies. -- Saltz Jerry What artists playing with the unclothed human form today share in common is a fundamental lack of shame. For Haynes, the act of painting the nude is, more than anything else, an antidote to shame. -- Julia Halperin * The New York Times *

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