Kat Toronto aka "Miss Meatface" Exhibition Opening Reception - The Untitled Space gallery, NY
Kat Toronto aka "Miss Meatface" Exhibition Opening Reception, The Untitled Space gallery, NY July 2, 2019 Photography by Patrick Cashin
Source:MISS MEATFACE EXHIBIT OPENS AT THE UNTITLED SPACE
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The Untitled Space opened a solo exhibition of self-portraiture by London-based artist Kat Toronto, known by her alter ego “Miss Meatface,” on July 2nd at the Tribeca gallery. The opening reception was followed by an artist talk and zine signing, in which Kat revealed the origins of her photographic persona.
Born from a time of intense suffering in her life, Miss Meatface is an exploration of gender roles, societal pressures and sexual liberation. Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto uses her often unsettling and surreal images to explore cultural ideals of feminine beauty and the objectification of women in a feminist society by toying with the push and pull of dominance and submission. Diagnosed with a rare form of cervical cancer in 2010 that eventually led to a full hysterectomy in 2013, Kat uses the name “Miss Meatface” as an artistic and spiritual catalyst to delve into a complex set of questions about where she now fits into society as a woman.
During her artist talk at the opening, Toronto explained how she started to use self-portraits and her alter ego as a way to resist self-harming after her hysterectomy and the breakdown of her first marriage. “I learned how to do special effects makeup and I took self-portraits with a polaroid camera,” Kat said. “That’s where the ‘Meatface’ thing came from. In my early photographs I have all sorts of wounds on my face.”
However, as Kat explored her relationship with the fetish community and reflected on her personal history, Miss Meatface began to morph into the latex-and-mask aesthetic that is seen throughout this gallery showing. Many of the images presented in the exhibit are also a reflection on her family history, as she frequently shot in historic, family homes owned by her grandparents, aunt, and father. “Miss Meatface keeps evolving,” Kat said. “It’s interesting, the twists and turns that my life takes, she just kind of goes with it and unveils something new to me every single time.”
The Miss Meatface exhibition includes photographs, zines, ceramics, and videos. It will be on view at The Untitled Space through July 13, 2019. Her artwork has previously been featured in The Untitled Space group shows EDEN, (HOTEL) XX, SECRET GARDEN, SHE INSPIRES, UPRISE/ANGRY WOMEN, and ONE YEAR OF RESISTANCE, all curated by Indira Cesarine, and this is her debut solo show at the gallery.
ARTIST STATEMENT
“My photographic persona Miss Meatface began in mid-2014 as an artistically therapeutic outlet for me while I was going through a particularly brutal period in my life: a year before I’d undergone a a full hysterectomy for cervical cancer and my marriage was ending. The surgery had left me confused and conflicted, long after my body had physically healed my mind was still reeling from the experience. On the outside I looked just like any other person, but on the inside I no longer possessed certain organs that society seemed to place an enormous amount of importance on. So I began using photography – self portraiture in particular – as a way to explore concepts of sexuality, feminine beauty, and gender roles in an effort to try and dissect all of these complex thoughts that had been riddling my mind. Miss Meatface has since evolved into a larger than life personality and I continue to use her as a creative means to explore my own sexuality and the stereotyping of gender and gender roles in society as a whole.” – Kat Toronto aka Miss Meatface
Exhibit on View through July 13th
The Untitled Space
45 Lispenard Street, NY 10013
Hours: 12pm – 6pm
Event photography by Patrick Cashin for The Untitled Magazine
