Sean Fader
The NIU Art Museum will present a public artist talk Tuesday, Oct. 14, by New York City artist Sean Fader.
“Trade Pics? Photography as Interpersonal Space” is scheduled from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Altgeld Hall 315.
Fader explores self and other by literally trying on another person’s body and demeanor. In his “I Want to Put You On” photo series, he keenly, yet cheekily, examines how to be another resulting in work that is humorous, shocking and compelling. Through his clowning performance and Photoshop, we gain perspective on gender and identity.
In his artistic practice, Fader engages collaboratively with another human being to examine one’s own image of self, one’s projected image and whether that correlates with how another sees one. Together, the artist and subject sometimes create a whole new composite being that better expresses the subject’s sense of self.
Selections from Fader’s “I Want to Put You On” series are currently on display at the NIU Art Museum in the Manly Men, Girly Girls, and Everybody in Between exhibition, which runs through Saturday, Nov. 15. The exhibition includes 10 contemporary artists whose work explores aspects of the gender identity continuum. While serving as a visiting artist at NIU, Fader will critique art students’ work and meet with students at the Gender & Sexuality Resource Center.
Fader works in photography, video, performance and lived practice.
In 2008, he received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; in 2006, he completed his MA at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. While in Baltimore, he received the Murthy Digital Arts Award.
He has gone on to receive a number of honors, including the 2012 Magenta Foundation Flash Forward Award, the A Blade of Grass Fellowship in 2013 and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Photography Award in 2012.
For more information, call (815) 753-1936.
