Every human body is a thing of wonder—a naturally occurring marvel of anatomical design, a practical machine in which we live our lives, sometimes an enticing object of desire or a blank canvas that we tattoo or pierce to convey our personalities. But in the past and present of Western art, it is usually the female body—especially when it’s unclothed—that captivates artists and viewers, primarily because it offers men a chance to take a long look without accusations of impropriety.

This exhibition shifts our attention toward men’s bodies, and specifically how contemporary artists working in a wide range of materials and styles see this timeless subject. Their inspirations come from all directions—from antiquity and academic classicism to modernism, the conceptual, and the digital. Some work from the live model, others entirely from imagination; some are frankly erotic and others quite chaste.

All that these exhibited works have in common, then, is their subject matter, and their excellence. They remind us that the genre of male nudes is thriving, despite its being comparatively overlooked in the art world even now. The Male Nude: Turning the Gaze provides an opportunity to set that imbalance right by highlighting more than three dozen artists. Judging from what’s here, we all have cause to be optimistic about the field’s future.