Dressed in a dirty white dress, one white fishnet stocking, a bra functioning as a thong, elaborately sparkling facial make-up, and a blonde wig with a bright red bow, Taylor Mac presents a kind of drag that references traditional femininity while simultaneously being devoid of it. In The Young Ladies Of, his engaging solo show at HERE Arts Center, the performance artist grapples with questions of gender while making an attempt to understand his relationship to his father, who died when he was still a child.

A lieutenant in the U.S. army who was stationed in Vietnam, Robert Mac Bowyer left his son little to remember him by. However, a few years ago, the artist's mother found a number of hi[...]