Bex Massey

Bex Massey’s work examines the role of painting and the language of display in the face of popular culture. They amalgamate simulacra and allegory to investigate notions of ‘worth’ via motifs and tones extracted from their childhood. Massey’s previous works and exhibitions have engaged the codes and history of queer culture, along with markers of selfhood and Northern identity. Recent works have become visually softer, more sedate and uncomfortable as the unease and ‘value’ in this series is created via the relationships between the minimal conflations. 

The image pairings within these paintings encourage allusion to female bodies, building an underlying sexual tension imbued by the artist into quotidian objects. Compositionally the couplet mirror each other and their visceral epicentres form a visual echo.  This is further extended by an implied auditory element as the scenes contain the potential of noise, whether it is the moment a cat yawns or a fizzy drink explodes – force in one image is released in its partner. 

These climactically coupled, female laden, tension imbued depictions are a nod to societies persistently binary notions of gender and therein the habitual reminder that outside the male gaze, Female + Female = Incorrect. Maseys recent fertility journey with their partner has brought this into sharp focus, and this process is alluded to in the titles of canvas which are named after the sperm donors they have considered. This additional layer encourages the work to be viewed via a reproductive lens.

Bex Massey courtesy of Seventeen.

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