Anderson Yezerski Gallery is pleased to announce Pansy boys, an exhibition of recent collage work by Keith Maddy. For this exhibition Maddy continues his meticulous practice of hand-cutting vintage material. Two bodies of work will hang in the space, Pansy boys and Mariposas.

Both unpack and investigate Maddy's experiences growing up and into manhood today. These collages recontextualize the way words like pansy and mariposa have been used towards boys and men as derogatory slang by reclaiming them through narrative imagery. Thrifted coloring books and encyclopedias are married into beautifully tender moments.

Backdrops of pansies and butterflies embrace depictions of boys, as everyday activities become formative memories. Butterflies also surround adult men represented as police officer, cowboy, wrestlers, and more.

"The words pansy and mariposa, the Spanish word for butterfly, represent flora and fauna, universally embraced for their beauty and delight. How ironic and cruel that they both are also used as slurs (the pejorative of mariposa is faggot) to deride and bully boys and men whose nature may not conform, or fit neatly into, societal gender norms. As a child, and as an adult, I have been on the receiving end of these slurs and, like many, evolved to embrace and own them on my own terms.

My collage series, Pansy boys and Mariposas, is conceived with these thoughts in mind. Carefully selected images of boys and men were hand cut from vintage coloring books, recomposed within pansy and butterfly motifs to create intimate portraits of unabashed joy and confidence, as well as beauty and fragility. Tapping into a tactile memory, my chosen materials and process further accent this theme using delicate pages of vintage encyclopedias, coloring books, postcards and handkerchiefs."

(Text by Keith Maddy)