London-based artist Weiyi (Margaret) Liang, renowned for her photography series “Mountain of A”—featured in Bloomberg New Contemporaries and The New Talent at The Photographers’ Gallery—has expanded her exploration of gender and autobiographical storytelling into the curatorial realm with an exhibition titled The Eve Principle: Masculinity by Women. The show ran from 15 to 19 January at Norito Venue in Soho.
Drawing inspiration from Andrea Long Chu’s reimagining of Genesis in her book Females—which not only disrupts biblical tradition but also reframes the very construction of gender—as well as the theories of Judith Butler and Kathy Acker, The Eve Principle offers a bold, multifaceted inquiry into masculinity through a distinctly feminist lens. Featuring the work of five contemporary women artists, including Liang herself, the exhibition challenges the notion of masculinity as an inherent trait, presenting it instead as a fluid performance shaped and reshaped by cultural forces, bodies, and contexts.
The works on display intertwine themes of power, agency, and the interplay between strength and vulnerability. Through mediums such as sculpture, painting, photography, and montage, the artists delve into the contradictions of gendered identity with nuance, subverting expectations and fostering a dialogue on the versatility of masculinity when viewed from a female perspective. Each piece interrogates how strength, beauty, and fragility coexist within the masculine ideal, peeling back layers of complexity often concealed by traditional narratives.
Liang’s curatorial approach strikes a precise balance between subtlety and directness. The juxtaposition of Celia Mora’s intimate, soft paintings of a nude male model with Qinyang Li’s imposing barbed wire sculptures creates a compelling dialogue that questions how gender is physically and emotionally embodied. Ladina Clément’s barbell sculptures, which “collapse under their own weight,” frame a weightlifting self-portrait by Liang, where each piece complements the other both visually and conceptually. Meanwhile, the wit in Carmen Huízar’s text montage and the interactive nature of Li’s hanging sculpture with a bell bring energy to the gallery space, offering moments of levity and engagement. Through meticulous yet playful curation, Liang invites viewers to reflect on how masculinity manifests across history, culture, and lived experience, challenging assumptions and engaging with the fluid nature of gender performance.
Beyond its intellectual depth, The Eve Principle resonates on a deeply emotional level. Each artwork prompts a reconsideration of societal norms, presenting masculinity not as rigid or monolithic, but as fluid and transformative. The exhibition disrupts binary thinking, creating a space where strength coexists with vulnerability, and masculinity and femininity intertwine in new and reimagined ways.
The Eve Principle not only offers alternative definitions of masculinity but also recontextualises how gendered experiences are understood and visualised. It is a thought-provoking exploration of identity as flexible and complex, free from limiting conventions—a must-see for anyone engaged with contemporary conversations on gender and power.
Exhibiting artists: Ladina Clément, Carmen Huízar, Qinyang Li, Weiyi Margaret Liang, Celia Mora
About the curator:
Weiyi Margaret Liang (b.1998, China) is an artist working in the medium of photography and curator based in London, UK. Her practice centres around auto-theoretical representations, identity politics and the making/unmaking of narratives. Her works have been exhibited across the UK, Europe and Asia including New Contemporaries 2023 at Camden Art Centre, The Photographers’ Gallery’s The New Talent, London; Palm Photo Prize at Melkweg Expo, NL and Art Busan, KR. Her curatorial projects include One Swam Up Another Stream at Art In The Docks Gallery, Chorus of Contact in collaboration with Triangle Network in London, and curatorial writings for Bonian Space in Beijing.
