John Waters
“In all his work, Waters presents a remarkably consistent world view and the willingness to imagine what gets unleashed when repressive personal, social, and cultural strictures are lifted. In the photographic and sculptural work, and the early films presented in this exhibition, Waters joyfully exposes cultural contradictions, relentlessly questions ingrained social hierarchies, and cheers us all on toward nonconformity, liberation, and empowerment.”
— New Museum
John Waters, Shoulda!, 2014, 6 C-Prints, Image Size: 6 x 54 inches, Frame Size: 10.5 x 60.5 inches
John Waters is an American artist, filmmaker, writer, actor, and comedian whose work examines the intersections of fine art, entertainment, popular culture, and public image. Long associated with Baltimore and counterculture, Waters uses humor, provocation, and narrative to question social norms, taste, celebrity, consumption, and systems of value.
In his photographic and image-based works, Waters often reconstructs film stills and appropriates familiar cultural material, transforming fragments of mass media into sharp observations about identity, spectatorship, and cultural attitudes. His work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, among other institutions.