Zackary Drucker
Rosalyne, 2019/2021

C-print; 20 x 13 inches
Edition 2/5 + 2AP, signed, verso
Unframed
Courtesy of the artist and LUIS DE JESUS Los Angeles
Estimated value: $2,500

A generation after her heyday in the demimonde, Blumenstein relocated to southern California and became, among other things, muse and mentor to LA-based trans multimedia artist Zackary Drucker, who regards Blumenstein as one of her legendary foremothers—an iconically feminine, decidedly binary-gendered incarnation of Botticelli’s Venus.

The power of an iconic image is its capacity to simultaneously represent many desires, however contradictory or mutually exclusive, that exceed everything invested in it. For me, Drucker’s recent photographs of Blumenstein embody the fantasy of the fierce, street-smart trans girl who survives into empowered womanhood—a lived reality attested to by Blumenstein’s own compelling photographic archive (excerpted from Susan Stryker's text for Aperture.)

About the Artist:
Zackary Drucker

Zackary Drucker is an independent artist, filmmaker, and cultural producer. She has performed and exhibited her work internationally in museums, galleries, and film festivals, including the Whitney Biennial 2014 and MoMA PS1, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Art Gallery of Ontario; MCA San Diego; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; among others. Drucker is an Emmy-nominated producer for the docuseries This Is Me and was a producer on the Golden Globe and Emmy Award–winning Amazon show Transparent. The Lady and The Dale, her directorial debut for television, premiered on HBO in early 2021.

Website: zackarydrucker.com
Instagram: @zackarydrucker