A Big Hairy Deal

A Big Hairy Deal art exhibition celebrates, seduces, and plays dress-up to discuss issues of gender, image identity, and beauty. Hair, fashion, and make-up both disguise and reveal cultural standards of femininity and masculinity.

Luna Luis Ortiz, Hunter Reynolds, Robert Reed, Thom Markee, Bruce Volpone, Christopher Trujillo and Yolanda utilize representations of drag, camp, and fantasy to explore social gender prescriptions. John Dugdale, Arnold Fern and Mike Lee present nostalgic and idealized beauty, while JD Talasek, Derek Jackson, and Carmine Santaniello subtly twist such idealizations. Appearances of Pop Idols -- Madonna, Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, Jane Fonda and Joan Crawford -- suggest the constant flux of beauty as imagined by Hollywood and national media.

A Big Hairy Deal exhibition is a part of Visual AIDS' A Big Hairy benefit, one of the hippest, hairiest fundraising events of the year, where guests can get styled by New York's top hair and make-up artists for a $40. All proceeds benefit the programs of Visual AIDS.