Michael Tolley

I make dynamic paintings and drawings about gay monsters expressing their spirituality through deviant play. Like Seth Brundle’s science experiment gone wrong in The Fly, I make myself into Cronenbergian hybrids. These forms are fleshy, humanoid mutations crossed with my eclectic sensual appetites. What appeals to my senses range from the sheen of a frosted doughnut, the subtle value changes of a knee, to the double-penetration of a man’s anus. Having been raised in a strict Christian family, being gay and an atheist has left me exploring where the queer religious exile finds spiritual release through carnal pleasure in the societal fringes.