reviews > St Louis, MO

Kellie Spano
Kellie Spano

3/19/15 1:30 PM

In an age of sexy Selfies, how to make a nude self-portrait that is at once a celebration of the voluptuous female form and a historical critique of its use? Artist Kellie Spano achieves this in slippery fashion with a trio of photographs titled “M’Antiques: The Philia Project.” Each image layers a classic black-and-white pin-up—think Betty Page circa 1954—overtop a color picture of Spano in a similar pose. What seems to be a double exposure in photographic terms is not: the images weren’t shot on a single cell of film but printed one atop the other. Instead, it’s a double exposure in human terms: two people uncovered. The effect dizzies, the pair of women unexpectedly hard to separate. The pleasure of looking is shaken, not stirred.

—Lori Waxman