Beyond the Closet
The agency’s seventh exhibition, Beyond the Closet, brings together twenty artists (ten based in Switzerland and ten from abroad) to explore male nudity in contemporary art.

Through diverse mediums such as photography, drawing, painting, and sculpture, the exhibition examines themes of vulnerability, desire, and identity, challenging current conventional notions of masculinity and the male form. By juxtaposing local and global perspectives, the show creates a dialogue that questions cultural, social, and artistic norms, inviting viewers to consider how the male body, in whole or in part, becomes, once again, both a subject of desire and a site of objectification, thereby flipping traditional gender roles in art.

Male nudity has been an essential component of artistic tradition dating back to antiquity. In ancient Greece and Rome, the works exploring this theme show strength and beauty. Sculptures like Doryphoros and Belvedere Apollo give perfect examples of physical perfection.

Belvedere Apollo
Source: Vatican Museums

The renaissance further embraced this, with artists like Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci creating iconic work like David, the male figures in The Last Judgement, and The Vitruvian Man. Albeit still very shy with the size of certain body part.

Michelangelo, The Last Judgement, 1536 - 1541

As art transitioned into modernity, the representation of male nudity became less prominent. The rise of Christian morality is part of the reasons. The naked body was associated with sin and shame, drawing from the biblical story of Adam and Eve. (Talking about Adam and Eve, Masaccio did a fresco The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden on the walls of the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence in 1425. Three centuries later, the fig leaves were added to cover the genital part on the fresco. Thank goodness, the leaves were removed in 1980s during the restoration!)

Masaccio, The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Another reason one could think about is the persistent cultural taboo surrounding the male body. This stems partly from societal constructs of masculinity, which often emphasize strength. The male nude disrupts these constructs by presenting the body as soft, fragile, and exposed, challenging traditional notions of what it means to be male.

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, c 1484
Source: The Uffizi

This unease also arises from the historical conflation of male nudity with homoeroticism. While female nudity has been normalized through art and consumed within heteronormative frameworks, male nudity frequently confronts viewers with discomfort or unease due to its association with queer desire and thus has been marginalized. This bias not only reinforces heteronormative standards but also erases the experiences and contributions of queer artists and audiences.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Ajitto, 1981
© The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc.

The 20th century marked a turning point as queer artists began to engage more directly with themes of desire, sexuality, and identity. Artists like David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, Peter Hujar, and George Platt Lynes used male nudity as a powerful medium to explore queer desire, often confronting societal taboos head-on.

Peter Hujar, Gary Schneider in Contortion, 1979
© The Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS)

In the present time, although homosexuality is still a crime in certain parts of the world, these contemporary artists are courageously expressing themselves, exploring how queer desire intersects with race, ethnicity, age, and body type, in raw and intimate ways.

Like Freud said, what is repressed has a tendency to show up again, let’s bring the male nude to the forefront of artistic discourse once again.

Let’s keep reimagining the possibilities of representation in the present time and celebrate it as it challenges societal norms.

Exhibiting Artists

Dabi Arnasa (Indonesian, *1997) lives and works in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from the Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta (Indonesia Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta). His artistic practice is deeply rooted in the traditional Balinese principle of rwa bhineda, which emphasizes harmony between opposing forces, exploring the interplay between the known and the unknown, the clear and the ambiguous. Through surrealistic imagery, Arnasa reconstructs dreams as experiences that are simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary, creating evocative works that blur the boundaries of perception and reality.

Dabi Arnasa in his Studio in Yogakarta, Indonesia.
Image courtesy of the artist and ISA Art Gallery.

Arnasa’s select solo and group exhibitions include Define Comedy (currently until February 2025, ISA Art Gallery Jakarta), Wastan Titiang (2024, Yogyakarta), Fusion Flux (2023, Art Jakarta), Alt. Asia (2023, Singapore Art Week), and Rethinking Diaspora: Kalapatra of Sanggar Dewata Indonesia (2022, Sangkring Art Space, Yogyakarta).

Dabi Arnasa, Bekal Pulang (Homecoming Package), 2024
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 cm
CHF 400

Dabi Arnasa, Basah Membasuh (Wet Washing), 2024
Oil on canvas
65 x 65 cm
CHF 1’000

Dabi Arnasa, Menyapa Diam (Greeting the Silent), 2024
Oil on canvas
65 x 65 cm
CHF 1’000

Dabi Arnasa, Taman Mimpi (Dream Garden), 2024
Oil on canvas
65 x 65 cm
CHF 1’000

Dabi Arnasa, Seliuk Angin (The Twist and Turn of the Wind), 2024
Oil on canvas
65 x 65 cm
CHF 1’000

Laura Badertscher (Swiss & Australian, *1983) lives and works in Zurich. She moved to Australia in 2010 and began her art education in 2013 at the National Art School in Sydney. In 2014, she participated in an exchange program, spending a semester at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) before returning to Australia to complete her BFA in Painting. She earned her Master of Fine Arts at the National Art School, Sydney, in 2018. At the start of 2019, after nearly a decade living in the land Down Under, she returned to Zurich and established her studio.

Laura Badertscher in her studio in Zurich, 1 October 2024.
© Steven Anggrek

In 2019, Badertscher was a finalist in the Naked & Nude Art Prize Exhibition at Manning Regional Art Gallery in Taree, Australia, and received a grant from the Fondazione Silene Giannini in 2021. Select exhibitions and fairs include Einsichten VISARTE annual show at Kupper Modern Zurich (2024), Zurich Art Weekend Exhibition at Sihlquai 253 Zurich (2024), Art Market with a-space gallery Budapest (2023) ReA! Art Fair Milano (2023), WHATZ International Contemporary Art Fair Exhibition with a-space Taiwan (2023).

Her work is part of permanent collection of the Historisches Museum Baden.

Laura Badertscher, There’s few things we have to burn, 2024
Oil on wood, framed
54 x 40 cm
~~CHF 1’600~~

Laura Badertscher, Alfred (in the sun), 2024
Oil on wood
30 x 20 x 3.5 cm
CHF 750

Laura Badertscher, Martin (waiting for you), 2023
Oil on wood
30 x 20 x 3.5 cm
CHF 750

Harald Erath (German, *1984) lives and works in Zurich. He earned his BA in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts (AdBK) Stuttgart and a Master’s degree in Fine Arts/Stage and Costume Design from the University of the Arts (KH) Berlin.

Harald Erath in his studio in Zurich, 19 August 2024.
© Steven Anggrek

The artist has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Zurich, Stuttgart, and Berlin, including Bahay Contemporary, Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, and the TEDDY Award Berlin. His solo exhibitions have taken place in venues such as Galerie Meyer Riegger, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Haus der Kallistik, Atelier Peter Nitz, CoinCoin, and Material in Zurich.

Harald Erath, Ignotus mini est (I don’t know him), 2024
Egg tempera on wood
29 x 21 cm
CHF 3’600

Harald Erath, Musky Dream 1, 2024
Egg tempera on wood
29 x 21 cm
CHF 2’800

Harald Erath, Musky Dream 2, 2024
Egg tempera on wood
29 x 21 cm
CHF 2’800

Harald Erath, Finem Mundi 2, 2024
Egg tempera on wood
29 x 21 cm
CHF 2’800

Harald Erath, Finem Mundi 1, 2024
Egg tempera on wood
29 x 21 cm
CHF 2’800

Renan Estivan (Brazilian, *1994) is a multidisciplinary designer and textile artist residing in Salvador, Bahia. The erotic tapestries follow his personal and emotional point of view on the contrasts of sexual cultures, the study of bodies, gender performance and male sexuality. It transits through various contemporary embroidery and tapestry techniques, from square stitches, with the application of pixel art to tapestry fabrics, to the electric tufting gun for artistic tapestry. Renan is inspired by Brazilian artists, such as Kennedy Bahia and Rubico, textile artists from Bahia who were part of the Tropicalismo movement in the late 60s, and Alair Gomes, a photographer with whom he shares his observant look at the male bodies that make up the landscapes of coastal cities

Renan Estivan.
Image courtesy of the artist.

Renan Estivan, Sauna, 2024
Wool tapestry, wooden frame
76 x 59 cm
Limited edition, number 1 of 5
CHF 850

Renan Estivan, G Tapestry, 2024
Wool tapestry, wooden frame
48 x 32 cm
Limited edition, number 4 of 5
CHF 600

Santiago Figueroa (Chilean, *1984) lives and works in Santiago, Chile.

Santiago Figueroa at Anggrek Agency, 2 September 2024.
© Steven Anggrek

For over two decades, Figueroa has developed a distinctive artistic language across painting, printmaking, and photography, seamlessly blending figuration and abstraction. Beyond painting, he has collaborated with musicians as a stage designer. His practice is constantly evolving, bridging disciplines and materials.

Santiago Figueroa, Moonphase, 2023
Acrylic, Chinese ink and silkscreen on canvas
180 x 110 cm
CHF 4’000

Yannick Haas (Swiss, *1998) lives and works in Geneva. He graduated from the Visual Arts program from HEAD in 2024 and currently following the Master in Visual Arts CCC Critical Curatorial Cybermedia course at the same institution. His artistic practice proposes a critical and personal vision of the homosexual community through the representation of his own body or personal elements in pictorial space.

Yannick Haas.
Image courtesy of the artist.

This ceramic series began with a personal confrontation: unsolicited explicit images that he received on a dating app. By altering and recontextualizing these images, Haas disrupts their original framing, questioning the aesthetics of desire, voyeurism, and digital consumption. While digital images can exist indefinitely, their visibility is fragile, buried by algorithms, deleted, or stripped of context. Haas counters this instability by giving these fleeting images a lasting, physical presence. Through hand-painted tiles and sculptural compositions, he transforms ephemeral, algorithm-selected moments into tangible objects, resisting the endless digital flow.

Yannick Haas, Nudes, 2024
Glazed ceramic and metal oxides
61 cm ø
CHF 1’500

Yannick Haas, Desire begins with nudes and fear, 2024
Glazed ceramic and metal oxides
31 cm ø
CHF 850