James Franco must really like his self-portraits in drag; specifically, his recreations of Cindy Sherman from her Untitled Film Stills from nearly 30 years ago. He originally previewed them at Costume National’s Soho store during Fashion Week a year and a half ago, in a group show called NEW NO DARK WAVE. Now he’s opened a show at Pace Gallery, New Film Stills, exhibiting the same images along with a poem he’s penned for each.

Here’s what he had to say about the double chameleon approach: “Cindy is an artist who used cinema as a source for her work; she ‘played’ at being an actress. I am an actor who inserts himself into his work. Where Cindy used cinema as a starting place, I use art as a starting place. She, like so many of my favorite artists (Douglas Gordon, Richard Prince, Dan Colen, Nate Lowman, Paul McCarthy) uses cinema in her work, but she comes at it from a position outside of Hollywood. I am fully embedded in Hollywood, but these photos allow me to take a step to the side, look back, and refashion the work I do in Hollywood. I am at the same time actor, critic, artist, and character.”

New Film Stills, April 11 – May 3, 2014, Pace, 508 West 25th Street, NYC