Jaime Acker

POSER

January 8th — February 5th, 2022

In POSER, Acker uses the language of portraiture to amplify the contrast between masculine and feminine with his body’s appearance. Portraiture historically empowers its subjects through representation and Acker performs this as he “plays himself.” This phrase comes from the book “Halsted Plays Himself” by William E Jones about Fred Halsted, a gay porn filmmaker from the ’70s. Halsted made “L.A. Plays Itself”, a film that Jones described as an ironic inversion of porn that hardly functions as porn. For this reason, the film is seen as a masterpiece of gay porn and cinema itself. This inversion is Acker’s inspiration to play himself, layer himself with masks, makeup, and disguise to upend his appearance. “Poser” is a derogatory slang term that describes someone who is pretending to be something they are not. Acker’s purpose is to reverse, twist, invert and mold this definition into something empowering.  

Acker explores ideas of gender and power using the language of portraiture and performance to empower genderqueer identities. He graduated from the Meadows School of the Arts full fellowship graduate program at Southern Methodist University in 2014. Over the years Acker’s work has been selected for events such as Slideluck Dallas, exhibitions in Berlin, and publications in the UK. He has been nominated for awards by the Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas for their inaugural FUNd Grant, and the Artpace International Artist in Residence in San Antonio, Texas. Acker has completed two artist residencies in Berlin. He was first selected to attend a session at the Institut für Alles Mögliche, then at Picture Berlin where he gave a talk addressing sexuality in his work.  Additionally, Jaime’s compelling and provocative video work has been selected for film festivals in Berlin, Vienna, and San Francisco.