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Humans are doing it wrong. We mute our masculinity behind drab clothes and plain palettes, even though it is bristling with raw energy. Instead, we should study the instincts of the queens in the animal kingdom. Male peacocks preen their hues like they’re strutting down Santa Monica Boulevard and lions flex their ferocity with flowing manes that express their Pride (gay pun intended). Danny Ferrell is amplifying the frequencies that radiate from our auras and maximizing our machismo, one beard at a time. https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ-I0G5F1D1/ His artistic approach may seem enticingly new, but it is firmly entrenched in hirsute history. “The Rococo continues to be one of (if not) my favorite artistic movement,” Ferrell explains to Maake magazine. “I love the pageantry and excess, the billowing garments and cheeky irreverence.” Those aforementioned cheeks are often dappled with scruff and seduction. But instead of the gritty black-and-white depictions that characterize Tom of Finland, for example, Ferrell presents a candy-coated punk playground of LGBTQ+ transcendence. https://www.instagram.com/p/CNDvAu6FfVd/ His works lift the subject from everyday mundanity to enduring regality. “Royalty painting is also incredibly precise and masterfully rendered, things that really matter to me as an artist. Of course, these paintings are occupied by the white, bourgeois class, so I hope by inserting queer bodies and bodies of color into these recognizable, historical spaces, I elevate them from second-class to royal-class.” https://www.instagram.com/p/CZC4zhoFcbU/ This ascension is on full display at Ferrell’s latest exhibition: Castle in the Sky at the Miles McEnery Gallery in New York. His imagery leaps from the canvas and directly into the heart. “Emotional content is the cornerstone of my work and I hope it conveys notions of love, optimism and vulnerability. Male vulnerability expands the cultural definition of what it means to be ‘masculine’ as it runs counter to the accepted narrative of what masculinity means. I have always been a very sensitive man, and I hope the work gives others the permission to feel whatever they want to feel and be whoever they want to be.” Liberation accomplished. Our gay gaze is dancing across a rainbow of representation and reveling in Danny Farrell’s perspective. Thank you for the color commentary. https://www.instagram.com/p/CGpiVRQFlKL/ Photo: Instagram @dannyjferrell

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