Ace Lehner's Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure performance
Cost
Where
Maxon Mills
37 Furnace Bank Road
Wassaic, NY 12592
When
Sunday, September 13
2–5 PM
Who
Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure is an installation and social practice performance piece that takes the motif of the barbershop and queers it, creating a space for queer world-making. Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure embraces the ethos of queer failure (a concept developed by queer theorist Jack Halberstam) as a productive way of proposing alternatives rather than adhering to barbershop norms which under the guise of giving haircuts often reinforce notions about heteropatriarchal masculinity. Haircuts are given first come-first served, by the artist, Ace Lehner, who is not a trained barber but who has been cutting hair outside of sanctioned barber channels for over two decades; hence part of the ethos of queer failure. In exchange for a haircut, participants agree to engage in an act of queer world-making before their haircut grows out. The act associated with the haircut is negotiated during one’s haircut.
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About the Artist
Dr. Ace Lehner is an interdisciplinary visual culture scholar and artist specializing in critical engagement with identity and representation. Lehner's areas of expertise include trans and queer visual culture and theory, critical approaches to race and representation, modern and contemporary art history and visual culture, photography history and theory, and performance.
Lehner's writing on art and visual culture has appeared in Art Journal, Cultural Politics, Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change, Journal on Images and Culture, Media-N: Journal of the New Media Caucus, REFRACT, Visual Studies and more. Lehner's scholarship has also appeared in numerous anthologies, including a chapter co-authored with Amelia G. Jones in Companion to Contemporary Art in a Global Framework (edited by Jane Chin Davidson and Amelia G. Jones, published by Wiley Blackwell, 2023). Lehner recently guest edited the first-ever issue of Art Journal dedicated to trans visual culture. Lehner's current book project, Trans Representations: Decolonizing Visual Theory in Contemporary Photography (working title), is based on their dissertation research, which won them the College Art Association Professional Development Fellowship in 2020.
Lehner's artistic practice primarily utilizes photography, installation, and performance to mine the complex relationship between representations and the constitution of identities. Lehner's project Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure recently been featured in a solo exhibtion at Brewer Harris Projects in Syracuse NY, at the Fleming Museum in Burlington VT, Practice Gallery in Philadelphia, PA and the Wassaic Project in Wassaic NY. Lehner has exhibited at museums, galleries, and alternative spaces throughout the United States and Canada, including Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, NY; the International Center of Photography, New York, NY; Geary Contemporary, Millerton, NY; El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; The Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT; Practice Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; SOMArts, San Francisco, CA; The National Queer Arts Festival, San Francisco CA; The GLBT Historical Society Museum, San Francisco, CA; SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA; The Wassaic Project in Wassaic NY, La Centrale Gallery Powerhouse, Montreal Quebec, Canada; and many others.
Lehner is the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, including the Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship in Fine Arts and the College Art Association Professional Development Fellowship. Lehner has delivered numerous public talks and keynotes and organized conference panels throughout North America and Europe.
Lehner has taught in museum education for two decades and piloted the first ever Queer Tours at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York NY. Lehner has taught at California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA; Fashion Institute of Technology, New York NY; International Center of Photography New York, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, NY; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Santa Cruz and is currently Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Vermont, where they also are affiliate faculty in Gender Sexuality and Women’s Studies and the Honors College.
Lehner holds a Ph.D. in History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MFA in Fine Art / MA in Visual Studies from California College of the Arts.
Ace Lehner's Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure performance
Cost
Where
Maxon Mills
37 Furnace Bank Road
Wassaic, NY 12592
When
Sunday, September 13
2–5 PM
Who
Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure is an installation and social practice performance piece that takes the motif of the barbershop and queers it, creating a space for queer world-making. Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure embraces the ethos of queer failure (a concept developed by queer theorist Jack Halberstam) as a productive way of proposing alternatives rather than adhering to barbershop norms which under the guise of giving haircuts often reinforce notions about heteropatriarchal masculinity. Haircuts are given first come-first served, by the artist, Ace Lehner, who is not a trained barber but who has been cutting hair outside of sanctioned barber channels for over two decades; hence part of the ethos of queer failure. In exchange for a haircut, participants agree to engage in an act of queer world-making before their haircut grows out. The act associated with the haircut is negotiated during one’s haircut.
About the Artist
Dr. Ace Lehner is an interdisciplinary visual culture scholar and artist specializing in critical engagement with identity and representation. Lehner's areas of expertise include trans and queer visual culture and theory, critical approaches to race and representation, modern and contemporary art history and visual culture, photography history and theory, and performance.
Lehner's writing on art and visual culture has appeared in Art Journal, Cultural Politics, Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change, Journal on Images and Culture, Media-N: Journal of the New Media Caucus, REFRACT, Visual Studies and more. Lehner's scholarship has also appeared in numerous anthologies, including a chapter co-authored with Amelia G. Jones in Companion to Contemporary Art in a Global Framework (edited by Jane Chin Davidson and Amelia G. Jones, published by Wiley Blackwell, 2023). Lehner recently guest edited the first-ever issue of Art Journal dedicated to trans visual culture. Lehner's current book project, Trans Representations: Decolonizing Visual Theory in Contemporary Photography (working title), is based on their dissertation research, which won them the College Art Association Professional Development Fellowship in 2020.
Lehner's artistic practice primarily utilizes photography, installation, and performance to mine the complex relationship between representations and the constitution of identities. Lehner's project Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure recently been featured in a solo exhibtion at Brewer Harris Projects in Syracuse NY, at the Fleming Museum in Burlington VT, Practice Gallery in Philadelphia, PA and the Wassaic Project in Wassaic NY. Lehner has exhibited at museums, galleries, and alternative spaces throughout the United States and Canada, including Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, NY; the International Center of Photography, New York, NY; Geary Contemporary, Millerton, NY; El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; The Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT; Practice Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; SOMArts, San Francisco, CA; The National Queer Arts Festival, San Francisco CA; The GLBT Historical Society Museum, San Francisco, CA; SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA; The Wassaic Project in Wassaic NY, La Centrale Gallery Powerhouse, Montreal Quebec, Canada; and many others.
Lehner is the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, including the Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship in Fine Arts and the College Art Association Professional Development Fellowship. Lehner has delivered numerous public talks and keynotes and organized conference panels throughout North America and Europe.
Lehner has taught in museum education for two decades and piloted the first ever Queer Tours at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York NY. Lehner has taught at California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA; Fashion Institute of Technology, New York NY; International Center of Photography New York, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, NY; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Santa Cruz and is currently Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Vermont, where they also are affiliate faculty in Gender Sexuality and Women’s Studies and the Honors College.
Lehner holds a Ph.D. in History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MFA in Fine Art / MA in Visual Studies from California College of the Arts.
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