We are thrilled to announce that the Museum of Fine Arts Houston has acquired an edition of Caleb Cole's Trace (study), 2018.
The photographs in Caleb Cole’s series Traces are appropriated from photographs in gay men’s magazines from the 1980s and 1990s, the height of the AIDS crisis. Cole excises the men featured, and carefully fills the empty space by collaging reproduced elements from the photograph. The resulting images speak to loss, desire, anonymity, and vulnerability. Consciously intended as a response to the loss of friends to AIDS, these subtle pictures, “explore what it means to be seen, to be vulnerable, and speak to access and interest in queer and trans bodies, gendered notions of desire, and the pieces of ourselves that we hide from view.”
Cole's work was first exhibited at Foto Relevance from January 15 through March 19 in The Body as Memory show. The group show explored queer realities: historical, current, and speculative, imagining a brighter future through an understanding of our past. While we presently celebrate Cole's success, we look forward to what the future holds for them.
Main Image:
Caleb Cole
Trace (study), 2018, printed 2022
Inkjet print, 15× 12 in. (38.1 × 30.5 cm)