NO PIC NO CHAT
This ongoing series titled “NO PIC NO CHAT” explores the gay experience of connection through apps like Grindr. I began this series in 2020, and continue to add to the collection. I draw faceless versions of user profile photos alongside excerpts from their bios, highlighting how gay men use image and language to express desire, humor, and identity. Phrases like “no pic, no chat” and the prevalence of torso pics speak to a culture shaped by both performance and vulnerability, where self-presentation is carefully curated and instantly legible to those who know the code. I’m interested in how intimacy, rejection, and community coexist in these spaces. By isolating these fragments, I reflect on how identity is constructed and contested through digital interaction. These works also acknowledge the challenges within the gay app experience, from exclusion, misogyny, racism, body shaming and more, to moments of connection, humor, and care, revealing a complex, often contradictory space of longing, play, and self-definition.
Selections of this series have been included in the 2025 exhibitions “Word and Image” at Site:Brooklyn Gallery in Brooklyn, NY and “Word Play” at ARC Gallery in San Francisco, CA.