Jonathan Stein, a Miami-based artist, wants viewers to see his photographs and wonder if they are real or faked. In his series “The Healing Process,” Stein created nine images using costume make-up and prosthetics to make them look like pictures of a man who has been beaten.

This work is one of two pieces by Stein currently on display at the Jupiter campus library gallery, as part of the exhibit Exploring Gender. In his other piece, “It’s Just Make-up,” consisting of three photographs, he wants viewers to question whether gender lines are crossed when a man puts on make-up. His goal in both works is to have one man’s face represent society’s intolerance of others who are different.

“I welcome any response a student may have to my work. They may be the most homophobic person, and think it’s hysterical. I will embrace it,” he said. “I got you to think and feel something.”

Stein makes it clear that he is not celebrating violence, but the artist delves into topics of gender, violence and society in pictures.

For “The Healing Process,” he created a series of photographs documenting a mock attack on a man because of his sexual orientation. Each image represents one stage in the healing process of the victim’s face that has been viciously scarred by his mock assailants.

To make the photographs realistic, Stein acquired the aid of a CSI agent in Miami to observe each stage of make-up he applied on the model, and to make sure the healing time for the scars that Stein portrays is accurate.

The process of applying the make-up and taking it off took 24 hours to complete, in addition to months of research and preparation. The resulting images even convinced a trauma nurse viewing the exhibit to exclaim that it was very accurate, said Diane Arrieta, the Jupiter campus library exhibition chair.

Arrieta helped bring the exhibit to the Jupiter campus.

“The committee was unanimous in the decision to have Stein’s exhibit here,” Arrieta said.

She feels that it is important to be able to bring an exhibit like Stein’s that otherwise would not be widely seen throughout the area and would be hard to show elsewhere in Palm Beach County.

 Exploring Gender art exhibit

– When: through Oct. 15

– Where: Jupiter campus library gallery

– How much: free

– For more info: www.library.fau.edu/npb/npb.htm