Create! Magazine is thrilled to share the exhibition announcement for Elizabeth Bergeland's new solo show Quiet Boy, which explores the limits of traditional masculinity in modern society. The show recently opened at HotBed, a gallery and creative lifestyle space in Philadelphia that unites art, horticulture, and design.

HotBed is pleased to present, Quiet Boy, a new solo exhibition by painter Elizabeth Bergeland. For the first time in her career, Bergeland turns her attention to male bodies-painting men in her life and speaking with them about their experience of masculinity, insecurity, and the roles society casts them in. In this collection of nine new works, the artist presents a thoughtful and empathetic view of men as seen through the female gaze, noting that the patriarchy, which so obviously harms women, is also not serving the wellbeing of boys and men. The exhibition will be on view March 12 - May 14, 2022.

Quiet Boy takes its title from a poem by Stephen Kampa about the early social pressures boys feel to embrace and exhibit masculine traits or else risk isolation. Through these works, Bergeland explores personal and universal questions around raising children within a patriarchal society and how we may individually and collectively broaden society’s ideas around masculinity.

The men portrayed are close friends of the artist (many of them are artists themselves), which enabled her to have a greater level of trust and collaboration with them. As a woman and mother, Bergeland has experienced the all too common barriers and double standards women face in their careers and domestic spheres, but she is also committed to examining the limitations and pressures men experience as well.