'Still Beginning'

Miłość is excited to announce the first solo show of Zach Toppin, ‘Still Beginning’, presenting a new series of still lives which archive the personal lives of twelve of his trans masc community members: JJ, Libro, Romeo, Wet Mess, Kae, Sabah, Helios, Yasser, Baby, Osian, Marlo, and himself, honouring the precious objects of affirmation that work to build a trans life.

These still lives become essential portraits, a personal semiotics of a shaping and grounding of identity and individuality. They queer the idea of portraiture, taking away its physical body to refuse the societal intrusive obsession with trans bodies; they are portraits of spirit.

Transness is like being born again, at the same time changing rapidly and standing still. An identity that is finding itself, still transforming and beginning, a promise, a rush and grounding, a resuscitation of a still life, a search for a graceful balance of practicality and fantasy. In bell hooks’ 1995 essay ‘Beauty Laid Bare: Aesthetics of the Ordinary’, learning to see and appreciate the presence of beauty becomes an act of resistance. She describes beautiful objects as ‘lovely symbols of power and possibility’, as necessary to the spirit, a way to serenity through gentleness and precision. Love and affection come through the paintings, animating the objects by a making of self, referencing a queer tradition of secret messages, of hidden symbols recognisable only to the chosen.

Within the constant journeying of transition, objects remain anchors while being charged with something supernatural. Zach manipulates perspective and proportions, tracing the shift from realist still lives to soulful portraits. The mundane becomes magical, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, as both everyday and unique objects become treasured tools of transformation, vehicles of self-expression. They make tools for living as trans in a heteropatriarchal society that attempts to deny, silence and oppress.

For more information, please email aleksandra@miloscgallery.com. Prices are exclusive of VAT and any applicable taxes.