New York, NY — How can America pride itself on freedom while refusing small, relatively inconsequential liberties to half its population? In her solo exhibition TOPL3$$ AMERICA, artist Paula Romeu Garcia investigates internalized shame around the boundaries of nudity in public spaces. Photographing mundane scenes – riding the subway, taking the dog for a walk, working out– her subjects are topless, putting on display the gendered double standards around exposure. Her photographs both agitate existing discomfort around women’s self-assured nudity, and propose a speculative future where this stigma no longer exists. 
In 1992, it became legal for women to be topless in public places in New York state. In fact, toplessness is legal regardless of gender in most states. However, the cultural stigmatization and sexualization of exposed breasts remains. In America overall, the fascination with breasts has been reported to be disproportionate to other countries. Legality of exposure, in this case, is less of an obstacle than social stigma, the consequences of which could range from judgmental gazes to acts of violence.
      At this current social and political moment, Romeu Garcia’s series feels timely. In the simple act of asking friends and acquaintances to pose topless in public, the social and political nuances of personal and legal liberties are put on display, especially when it comes to women’s bodies. She reflects, despite these complexities, “Why do so many people do anything to build their dreams here? Because America is also the best place to push boundaries, be yourself and express your voice as an artist.” Although there may be an air of disillusionment surrounding American attitudes towards gender, sexuality, parenthood, bodily autonomy, among other civil rights issues, Romeu Garcia’s images offer a path to resistance or simply an outlet for self-examination.

     In TOPL3$$ AMERICA, the images are contradictory: glamorized yet mundane, confident yet self-conscious, real yet slightly suspended from the social realities of public space that we have come to know as Americans. Perhaps the images are so contradictory because they reflect our attitudes about women’s bodies and their sexuality. Polished and displayed in square format, the images reference social media’s censorship of women’s bodies despite the proliferation of pornographic images in online spaces. Exposure and sexuality are permitted so long as it is private or so long as it is commodified.