Everyday Art: Protect from Light at Casa de Costa

By discovering, offering guidance, and helping present and promote the works of emerging and established visual artists, Casa de Costa has become an influential force in the art world. Their latest endeavor is the solo show Protect from Light from photographer Josh McNey, a Southern California native at the collective's newest salon and studio in downtown Manhattan (really downtown -- as in the Financial District). McNey's work is heavily influenced by the inner-workings of male interactions and the tension of homoeroticism in the the relationships of heterosexual males. The artist started by shooting his brothers and still lifes of his surroundings as a young man, but it wasn't until after serving in an elite Force Reconnaissance for the US Marines that he honed his eye and started refining his vision. "Being afraid of my sexuality made me afraid to stare. I didn't want to be 'caught' looking at guys. I think this teenage strategy of visual chastity made it all the more urgent that I find a way to legitimize staring. Photography became for me both an apparatus and a metaphor for coming out as a gay man. Showing the work is one more step in that direction," he says. Enjoy his work starting this Friday, April 29th.

Josh McNey, Protect from Light
April 29th to June 9th 2011, Opening Reception April 29th, 6:00pm - 10:00pm
11 Stone Street, New York, NY 10004
917-304-5124