Zoë Lintzeris - The MaskYouLinity Project - Artist Statement

Zoe’s artist talk

Opening night Snippet:

MaskYouLinity.

What makes someone a man or masculine? Throughout all cultures, men have been presented as warriors, intellectuals, and geographical guardians — powerful and prestigious, pointing fingers, grasping weaponry, making fists and standing on soapboxes. In light of #MeToo and the angry, patriarchal rhetoric resonating in the United States as well as the rest of the world, it is important to view another side of the masculine equation — an intimate take on what lies underneath this concept of masculinity.  

This portrait series is a reflective exploration into the minds of those that identify as masculine and what it means to them. These people show their hands as is — with scars, tattoos, jewelry, and other markings that lend themselves to a complex, unique narrative which only they know. The portraits work in tandem with raw, unfiltered words scrolling alongside them, offering insight into the lives of these documented few that would otherwise go unnoticed or unknown. 

Biography

Zoë Lintzeris was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1986. She received her BA in journalism and a minor in studio arts from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2008. As a minimalist artist, she employs photography and canvas as platforms for visual storytelling in the U.S. and abroad. Exploring the human condition and emotional psyche, her work focuses on love, loss and resistance in urban and rural environments. She specializes in monochrome photography and painting, using only natural light to create the work.  

She has exhibited in New York since 2015, including shows at PWRPLNT, Point Green Studios, ArtHelix Gallery and Clover’s Fine Art Gallery. “The MaskYouLinity Project’ is her third conceptual-documentary photo project, following “The Heartbroke Project” in 2018 and “The Ladies Project” in 2017. Her work has been highlighted on Feature Shoot and in the Silk Road Review: A Literary Crossroads, and is part of private collections throughout the U.S. 

She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.  

Curator Biography

Henone Girma is an Ethiopian-born curator and arts administrator, serving as the program’s coordinator at The Africa Center. Girma has worked as guest curator and has overseen programs and installations of exhibitions at a number of New York City and surrounding area institutions such as the Newark Museum where she was an Andrew W. Mellon Research Associate, Art in FLUX Harlem, the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance. Her work has also been published in the art anthology, “The Newark Museum Collection: Arts of Global Africa”. She holds an International Business degree with a minor in French from University of Texas at Arlington and an MA in Visual Arts Administration with a nonprofit concentration from New York University.