Irma Sofia Poeter: 'New Man: A Woman's Gaze'

Listen to our KPBS Midday Edition interview with the artist here:

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Artist Irma Sofia Poeter is turning the male gaze around

Julia Dixon Evans

The Mexico-based artist opens a new exhibition, "New Man: A Woman's Gaze," at Bread and Salt on Saturday, Feb. 12, featuring textiles, fashion, sculptures … and lots of bejeweled phalluses.

Listen • 7:43

From the gallery:
Bread & Salt is pleased to announce Irma Sofia Poeter’s upcoming solo exhibition "New Man: A Woman’s Gaze" opening in our main gallery February 12, 5-8 p.m.

New man is comprised of fifteen never-before-seen works created over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the language of textiles, Poeter imagines a world in which women control the lens, directing and defining a new masculinity. She describes the body of work as an “exploration of an alternative masculinity in which ways of being and being in the world stand out in a different way. Sensitive men, men in harmony with nature, men clad in floral and lace textiles, men whose sexual organs are not the center of attention, men who are passive and reflective, men who live together without competing, men aware of their sensuality, men who by means of symbolic devices, blur the violent gender binary and open the way to the existence of a new man.”

About the artist:
Irma Sofia Poeter is a multidisciplinary Mexican-American artist whose practice encompasses all forms of textile. Her work is deeply rooted in the reevaluation of sewing and textile as high art and its ethos lies in the absolute necessity of an empowered femininity in collective pursuit of a more balanced and equitable future. Poeter currently resides and works in Tecate, Baja California.

Related links:
Bread and Salt on Instagram
Bread and Salt on Facebook
Irma Sofia Poeter on Instagram