Fleshbot: straight, exhibitions

Everyone Wants To Be Naked And Famous: Gillian Wearing's "Pin-Ups"

Jonnobot — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:10:25 EDT

In the future, it is said, everyone will be naked and famous for fifteen minutes. (At least we think that's what they say; we might have gotten things mixed up a little.) While modern technology has helped to make that goal obtainable through things like consumer grade video cameras and cellphone cameras, artist Gillian Wearing is also doing her part through her "Pin-Ups" series of paintings, in which aspiring models who responded to her casting call were transformed into framed objects of desire.

As our friends at Sex-And-Blogs describe the project:

"Select respondents were made-over with the help of hair stylists and make-up artists, and photographed in a glamour-style photo shoot. The resulting photos were also digitally retouched to help achieve the desired visual effect. Wearing then had the manipulated photographs transformed into unique—almost nostalgic—painted portraits."

It's an interesting concept, though it might have been even more interesting if the subjects who responded to Wearing's ad didn't already look like pin-up subjects to begin with. As soon as an artist comes along who comes up with a way to transform those of us with paunches and less-than-perfect boobs into classic pin-up material, we'll be taking off our clothes quicker than you can say "Andy Warhol".

• A Pin-Up Like You (sex-and-blogs.com)
• Gillian Wearing: "Pin Ups" (@ Regen Projects, Los Angeles, through August 23, 2008)

Conservative types on this side of the pond...

Jonnobot — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:11:17 EST

Conservative types on this side of the pond might balk at the idea of a children's museum devoted to sex like the one that opened in Paris recently, but we think it's a pretty enlightened idea. Plans for that forthcoming Children's Guide To The Busty Topless Stars of French Cinema, however, might be taking Gallic permissiveness a little too far. (latimes.com)

Exploring The "Demimonde" With Molly Crabapple

Lux Alptraum — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:25:18 EST

The last time we found ourselves enjoying the hospitality of Fleshbot crush object Molly Crabapple, we were at the Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art Show, a fabulous night of gogo girls, debauchery ... and, yes, art. This Friday, Molly's back in the art spotlight with "Demimonde," a solo show at New York's Arena Studios curated by friend of Fleshbot Audacia Ray. We stopped by the gallery last night for a preview of her work (and a chat with Buck Angel, who happens to be featured in one of the portraits). Click through for a preview gallery of Molly's art, and be sure to stop by Arena Studios this Friday at 7pm for the opening reception. (And a session of sexy burlesque life drawing. It's not just about culture, you know.)

· Molly Crabapple (mollycrabapple.com)
· Arena Studios (arenastudios.com)
· Audacia Ray (wakingvixen.com)

Sex In Design/Design In Sex @ NYC's Museum of Sex

Lux Alptraum — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:50:24 EST

With all the bad porno titles, poorly made sex toys, and uncomfortable lingerie out there, it can be easy to forget that good design and hot sex can (and should) go together. If you're feeling overwhelmed by cheap sex and even cheaper sex toys, put down that vibrating CyberSuck and head over to New York City's Museum of Sex for the brand new "Sex in Design/Design in Sex" exhibit, a refreshing look at all the ways sex and design overlap and interact. From erotic images in everyday advertising to innovative designs for sex toys and condoms, this showcase reminds us just how attention to detail can make the world a sexier place. Check out our photo gallery from last night's opening reception after the jump.

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· Museum of Sex (mosex.org)

· See also: "MoSEX Opening" (pleasurehappens.blogspot.com)

The new exhibit at the Bibliothèque...

Jonnobot — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:38:53 EST

The new exhibit at the Bibliothèque National in Paris featuring erotic art from the library's collection (including "sadism, masochism, bestiality, inflated genitalia and the most imaginative sexual fantasies and athletic poses") sounds awfully hot, but it turns out we might have to go to Paris to see it since there's nothing by way of previews on the exhibition website. Guess we'll just have to keep wading through all those back issues of National Geographic at our own local branch to get our publicly supported smut fix in the meantime. (nytimes.com + bnf.fr)

Fifteen years ago you could get arrested...

Dashiell Bennett — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:30:21 EDT

Fifteen years ago you could get arrested just for owning a Playboy in South Africa; this weekend, you could have spent your afternoon browsing the country's first "sexhibition". Now that's progress! (iol.co.za)

Kohei Yoshiyuki: Sex In "The Park"

Fleshbot — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:25:18 EDT

Armed with a flash camera, some infrared film, and plenty of nerve, Japanese photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki took a series of photographs of people having sex—and the people watching them—in Tokyo parks in the late 1970s; not seen since his last exhibition in 1980, they're currently on view at the Yossi Milo Gallery in New York City through October 20. But don't think they're just about cheap thrills: according to the gallery, "With their raw, snapshot-like quality, these images not only uncover the hidden sexual exploits of their subjects, both homosexual and heterosexual, but also provoke questions about our own attitudes towards surveillance and voyeurism.". To say nothing about the perennial popularity of certain subjects and pastimes; we might spend a lot of time here at Fleshbot covering the latest developments in the Japanese sex scene, but when it comes to people being pervy in public, some things don't seem to have changed very much at all.

· "Sex in the Park, and Its Sneaky Spectators" (NY Times)
· Kohei Yoshiyuki: The Park (exhibition info and gallery @ yossimilogallery.com)

Previously: Inside Japan's Adult Treasure Expo, Tokyo Perve: Tokyo Underground Fetish Parties, Tabou: Photos by Tominari Tetsu, Japanese Fetish Club Tour, Tokyo Swingers, Tokyo Undressed

"The Naked Portrait" @ Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Fleshbot — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:30:39 EDT

"Sexy" and "Scotland" aren't usually concepts you expect to find in the same sentence (unless like us you have a fondness for swigging Glenlivet in between sips of XXX Vitamin Water throughout the day, in which case everything starts to look sexy after a while), but beneath that tweedy, damp facade lies a society with the cultural openmindedness to put together a museum show featuring naked bodies from the entire history of photography—and at their National Portrait Gallery, no less. Since "The Naked Portrait" features such art historical heavyweights as Lucien Freud, Richard Avedon, and David Hockney, it's more about Great Art than cheap thrills ... though there's plenty of those to be had if if your idea of cultural enrichment depends on the amount of naked boobage on display. Heck, if there were more shows like this in US museums, we might actually get ourselves out of the house to look at art instead of sitting around looking at naked bodies on our computers all day!

· "The Naked Portrait" (exhibition info @ nationalgalleries.org; see preview gallery here - via sexblo.gs)
Thumbnail: Jane Birkin (1969) by David Bailey

Previously: "Eloquent Nude": Edward Weston and Charis Wilson, World Museum Of Erotic Art, Sweatnapper: Modern Nude Ambrotypes, Touring London's Sex "Theme Park", Old Master Smut By David Nicholson

One Nation Under A Dildo: Sex Worker Visions

Fleshbot — Tue, 01 May 2007 11:45:36 EDT

What do you get when you give a sex worker a dildo, a glue gun, sequins, paint, and a thread and needle? Art, of course! $pread magazine, the now two year old magazine by and for sex workers, is unveiling more than forty decorated (and mutilated) dildos as part of its second annual art exhibition Sex Worker Visions, curated by Fleshbot contributor Audacia Ray. Sex workers in Cleveland, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal and New York got together in their respective cities with craft supplies and dildos to make phallic creations that look like muppets, WMDs, and disco balls ... sometimes all at once. The larger show features a whole host of Fleshbot crush objects as well: Annie Sprinkle, Molly Crabapple, Zak Smith, and Vena Virago are all showing pieces about working in the sex industry. To top it all off, the exhibition is at Arena Studios, a working dungeon, so art fans can ponder whether that elaborate rack of paddles and pointy things is an installation piece or part of the decor.

· One Sex Worker Nation Under Dildo (Flickr)
· "Sex workers' art on display" (ny.metro.us)
· $pread Magazine (spreadmagazine.org)
· Sex Worker Visions II Info (opens tonight @ Arena Studios, 407 Broome Street, NYC)

Previously: 2007 Sex Workers' Art Show Tour, 2007 Seattle Erotic Art Festival, Sex Worker Podcast: Tow Truck Panties' RenegadeCast

2007 Seattle Erotic Art Festival

Fleshbot — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:30:45 EDT

About the only thing that gets us more excited than a citywide spectacle devoted to sexy art and culture is a website that greets us with the tantalizing words "SEXUAL CONTENT WARNING" in bold caps—and fortunately where this year's Seattle Erotic Art Festival is concerned, we don't have to settle for just one or the other. Alas, you'll have to go to Seattle yourself this weekend to check out what will be heating up the walls of the Fenix Performance Arts Theater in SODO since the festival organizers haven't yet posted any examples by the hundred or so artists whose work will be on display, but given the fact that nearly a dozen printers in the Seattle area refused to print the exhibition catalogue due to its explicit content, you can bet they'll be more than a few pieces that will be just the thing to perk up that chaste space above your sofa if you're so inclined.

· 2007 Seattle Erotic Art Festival (seattleerotic.org - thanks Jefe)
· Seattle Erotic Art Festival on MySpace (myspace.com)

· Thumbnail by 2006 and 2007 SEAF artist Erin Frost

Previously: World Museum Of Erotic Art, 2007 Sex Workers' Art Show Tour, "The Dirty Show", "Negative Exposure", "Peeping, Probing and Porn", Hot At Large, EroticArtists.org, "Eros In Modern Art", 100,000 Years of Sex, "Kink" @ Museum of Sex