July 25th 2023 – September 21st 2023, Massy Arts will host, Blue-Collar Sex Kitten, a window installation by artist Nico McGiffin.

For the show, Nico, a Vancouver-based butch, interdisciplinary artist, investigates the not-so-overt homosocial relationship that exists between x-rated queer transsexuality and ultra-masculine blue-collar identities. Drawing from archival research, they allow their material to speak and exist with carefully informed alteration, often paying homage to the resourceful and hand-made aesthetics of historical queer kink objects.

Combining synthetic materials like latex and silicone with second-hand athletic gear, man-cave collectibles, and construction tools, they conduct a conversation between disparate cultures, casting a lustful haze over the so-called lines that separate hyper-masculinity and hyper-queerness.

Bridging the gap between explicitly queer identities and stereotypical cis-masculinity, they create hot and heavy avenues from which their sculptures enter a strangely romantic dichotomy between the macho and intimately obscene.

This project is supported by the Community Arts Council of Vancouver + First Peoples’ Cultural Council.

The Massy Arts Gallery is located at 23 East Pender Street in Chinatown, Vancouver.
The gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday, 12pm to 5pm.
Entrance is free, and masks are mandatory.

To contact the gallery, send an email to: info@massyarts.com.

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The Artist

Nico McGiffin (b.2002) is a non-binary, queer assemblage sculptor investigating the ways in which found and fabricated objects work to bridge the gap between butch-queer identities and highly macho cis-masculinity. They are based in “Vancouver BC” on the unceded traditional territories of the xwməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil- Waututh) Nations, where they are completing their BFA in Sculpture + Expanded Practices at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

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