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Have You Ever Seen a Transsexual Before? Videos by Chris E. Vargas

Dirty Looks presents the first-ever retrospective of work by Bay Area artist and activist Chris E. Vargas. Perhaps best known as one half of the web series Falling in Love with Chris and Greg, a sitcom about a gay odd couple - one liberal, one radical; one transgender, one not - Vargas has produced a body of work that is politically subversive, culturally acute, and hysterical. From post-apocalyptic LA bikers to "the first pregnant man," Liberace, and Bronski Beat, these works challenge the homonormative, queering pop culture and rewriting queer histories.

About the filmmaker:
Chris E. Vargas is a film and video maker based in Oakland, CA, whose thematic interests include queer radicalism, transgender hirstory, and imperfect role models. He earned his MFA in Art Practice from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2011. Since 2008, he has been making, in collaboration with Greg Youmans, the web-based trans/cisgender sitcom Falling In Love...with Chris and Greg. Episodes of the series have screened at numerous film festivals and art venues, including MIX NYC, SF Camerawork, and the Tate Modern. With Eric Stanley, Vargas co-directed the movie Homotopia (2006) and its feature-length sequel Criminal Queers (2012), which have been screened at Palais de Tokyo, LACE, Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow, and the New Museum among other venues.

About Dirty Looks:
A salon of influences, DIRTY LOOKS is a New York-based roaming series, an open platform for inquiry, discussion and debate. Designed to trace contemporary queer aesthetics through historical works, Dirty Looks presents quintessential GLBT film and video alongside up-and-coming artists and filmmakers. Dirty Looks exhibits a lineage of queer tactics and visual styles for younger artists, casual viewers and seasoned avant-garde filmgoers, alike. In 2012, Dirty Looks also launched the month-long Dirty Looks: On Location a month of queer interventions in New York City spaces, which was featured in the New York Times and reached 2,500 viewers.