Tai Shan Schierenberg’s Men Without Women—a new show at Flowers gallery, Cork Street—takes inspiration from Hemingway’s book of the same name and presents paintings of groups of males engaged in sport, drinking and violence, and more tender moments of men alone alone. The artist digs into the notion of masculinity in Western culture, and the paintings explore the cliches and social pressures that come with this. Sometimes the conflict of physical and emotional states are at play, and the emphasis on athleticism and muscular bodies teases societal expectations of what men are told they should be. “Intensely raw, gestural brushstrokes create a complex surface tension,” says the gallery, “evoking the collision of limbs and clash of boxing gloves, while delicate membranes of dripped paint suggest emotional sensitivities hidden from the outside world.”
