NEWS
My solo show “UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES” at Everyday Gallery in Antwerp has been longlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025
STRATEGIES OF RESILIENCE
Schwules Museum, Berlin
17.10.24 - 28.04.25
“This is how I am in my whole body, this is how I am and this is how I remain. Yes, sir!” (Zarah Leander)
The biographical estate of Eberhardt Brucks (1917-2008), which is kept in the Gay Museum, gives us a special insight into the life of a gay man who was remarkably characterized by resilience: the ability to overcome difficult situations or crises and emerge stronger from them. In National Socialist Berlin, under the persecution of Paragraph 175 and in the post-war period, Eberhardt repeatedly found loopholes to live out his gay identity and sexuality. Eberhardt’s strategies of resilience included playful approaches and protected him from the systems, made him capable of acting, enabled him to have partnerships, physical self-empowerment and spaces of joy. This new perspective on a not-so-ordinary gay life in the 20th century is extended into a queer present in this exhibition: four positions by contemporary artists tie in with the resilient aspects of Eberhardt Brucks’ life.
Curated by neo seefried
“Strategies of Resilience” is an exhibition with objects from the Eberhardt Brucks collection at the Schwules Museum, as well as artistic works by Genesis Kahveci, Florian Hetz, Sarnt Utamachote and Rein Vollenga.
GROW IT, SHOW IT!
A Group Show at Museum Folkwang, Essen
13.09.2024-12.01.2025
A look at hair from Diane Arbus to TikTok
From Afro, locs, braids or cornrows to bob, beehive or taper, hair is an integral part of our everyday culture and offers unlimited design possibilities. How we choose to show or hide, grow or shave our head, facial and body hair is an expression of our personality, but also of our affiliation to social, political, religious or cultural communities. We use hairstyles to communicate, optimise and conceal a part of our identity, to set ourselves apart or fit into a collective, and thus to send out messages – whether intentionally or unintentionally. In the everyday tension between intimacy and public representation, we use our hair to show our individuality, conformity, rebelliousness or solidarity.
The exhibition entitled Grow It, Show It! explores the historical, political and everyday cultural significance of hair through a wide range of historical and contemporary photographs, videos and film clips from art as well as fashion and social media. The comprehensive exhibition shows that hair is always a carrier of information. The way we wear our hair is not only determined by the pursuit of beauty ideals, but has always been politically and socially charged as an identity-forming feature, a ritual symbol of power, a spiritual material and a communicator of social status.
In its historical and popular science dimension, the exhibition explores the question of how representations of hair at the interface of art, fashion and advertising photography are not only the subject of the beauty industry, but also of queer-feminist, body-political and post-colonial discourses. At the same time, the exhibits dating from the 19th century to the present day shed light on the ways in which images of hair have consolidated and defined trends over the course of time.
With works of:
Hoda Afshar, Laura Aguilar, Diane Arbus, Ellen Auerbach, AWA Magazine, BALAM, Jürgen Baldiga, Barber Turko, Carina Brandes, BRAVO, Nakeya Brown, Tessica Brown, Julia Margaret Cameron, Jim Carrey, Chaumont–Zaerpour, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Rineke Dijkstra, Juan Pablo Echeverri, Anna Ehrenstein, Lotte Errell, Jason Evans, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Samuel Fosso, Pippa Garner, André Gelpke, Weronika Gęsicka, Camilo Godoy, Nan Goldin, Ulrich Görlich, Henriette Grindat, Carola von Groddeck, F. C. Gundlach, Johann Hinrich W. Hamann, Mona Hatoum, Florence Henri, Florian Hetz, David O. Hill & Robert Adamson, Thomas Hoepker, Ewald Hoinkis, Peter Hujar, Graciela Iturbide, Lebohang Kganye, Jens Klein, Peter Knapp, Herlinde Koelbl, Paul Kooiker, Anouk Kruithof, Andreas Langfeld, Alwin Lay, Zoe Leonard, Madame d’Ora, Mahmoud Manaa, Ana Mendieta, Sabelo Mlangeni, Suffo Moncloa, Marge Monko, Zanele Muholi, Thandiwe Muriu, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Helmut Newton, Satomi Nihongi, Nicholas Nixon, Fred Odede, Bubu Ogisi, Mobolaji Ogunrosoye, J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere, Ulrike Ottinger, Helga Paris, Doris Quarella, Alfred A. Rau, Eugene Richards, ringl + pit, Roxana Rios, Torbjørn Rødland, Thomas Ruff, RuPaul, August Sander, Viviane Sassen, Max Scheler, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Lorna Simpson, Annegret Soltau, John Stezaker, Tabboo!, Hank Willis Thomas, Wolfgang Tillmans, Marie Tomanova, Tunga, Danielle Udogaranya, Dorothea von der Osten, William Wegman, Tom Wood, Yatreda, Leyla Yenirce, Sheung Yiu
SEX SELLS… beyond the historical matrix
A Group Show at Semjon Contemporary, Berlin
05.07.-03.08.2024
Since time immemorial, women have been seen and depicted as objects in art. The mythologies and later, in the Baroque period, the stories from the Bible were the allibi for men to negotiate the object of desire in its nakedness. The Greek art, however, in ancient time, and thus the Roman art, negotiated nudity equally for both sexes.
Only in recent times, when prudery has fallen (and a new one appears on the horizon again), has the man also become the object of desire, specifically and gratefully taken up by the advertising industry in order to bring the product to be advertised to men and women. On the other hand, proudly swollen pants on handsome men, sometimes even a naked man, are no longer a rarity. Abercromby & Fitch plays perfectly with the lust for men towards men.
The upcoming exhibition deals visually in extracts with the (desiring) gaze of women on men and on women. The male gaze on men is generally rarely heterosexual and if it is, it is dictated by penis envy. The flood of known paintings of men by men neglects the organ that defines him when he is depicted naked - usually in the context of exposed women.
The male gaze on the woman is deliberately omitted from this exhibition. It has been too dominant for ages.
The instrumentalization of the naked woman as an object of male desire has only been curbed with the rise of the women's movement. The me too debate since 2017 has given awareness a new and aggressive drive. Today, no car showroom would advertise its latest models with well-busted women.
The gaze negotiated here, often also understood in erotic and explicit terms, aims to trace the self-empowerment that is characteristic of women and mostly gay men. The intermediate stages of the LGTB community are conditionally included. The gaze meanders between self-assurance, the self-confident statement and desire. Almost all media will be represented including AI. The exhibition planning is in the process of being formulated. It is work in progress.
GORGEOUSNESS
A Group Show curated by Richard Renaldi at Benrubi Gallery, New York
20.06.-17.09.2024
On February 24, 2022, in a speech by Vladimir Putin announcing his “rationale” for invading Ukraine, queer people made a surprising cameo. The West, he said, “sought to destroy our traditional values,” with attitudes, “that are directly leading to degradation and degeneration, because they are contrary to human nature.” There was little doubt as to whom he was referring. Thus, for the first time in history, the existence of queerness was cited as a casus belli in the struggle between world orders.
Queer communities in the US and around the world in the summer of 2024 find themselves squaring off against a series of ambient tensions singular in history. The long run of gradually expanding rights that began in the late 1970s and crested with the legalization of US gay marriage in 2015 has come to an end. More recent decisions by the Supreme Court, the legislatures of various states, community libraries and school boards have revealed an organized and persistent hostility to queer art, literature and identity.
Although we have seen counter movements to queer progress before, the piecemeal dismantling of just recently acquired rights is a new form of slow torture. There was a whiff of sadism in the multiple ironies of last year’s Supreme Court decision, 303 Creative v. Elenis, enshrining the constitutional right of a self-described artist not to provide services to queer clients. As with Obergefell, the decision came down at the end of June.
And we have never seen the constellation of illiberal agendas that are now making common cause, braiding together globally with malign efficiency to demonize queer communities. Right wing movements around the world may differ broadly in their specifics and texturally in their rhetoric, but they are identical in one particular: the weaponization of gender and sexuality.
In this context, with the US presidential election looming as a near totalizing event of world historical anxiety, I have assembled a show of works, all by queer artists, in celebration of Gorgeousness. This show is as much a wellness check on a community at the leading edge of the cultural headwinds as an incitement to consider the gravity of what may lie ahead.
Gorgeousness. What is it? A cumbersome word. It’s got those “few extra s’s” that would get “The Kids in the Hall’s” Buddy Cole in trouble. Impossible to pronounce without a hissing sibilance that causes us momentarily to metamorphose into serpents. And don’t you just know, if Disney had animated Genesis, they would have coded the serpent as menacingly queer? Like the source of queerness, there is uncertainty about the origin of the word “gorgeousness.” But must we define everything? Queerness is the freedom to reject the definitions that have never fully served us.
As ever, queer artists are studying and sanctifying the body. And why not? The human body contains the source code of all beauty and evil. Human bodies are the most deadly, compelling and sensuous things human beings have ever created. But the queer body is special: liberated from the expectation of reproduction, the queer body is free to become a site of adaptive reuse and aesthetic activism.
This Pride, we should also remember those in our global community who Western queer freedoms, as fragile as they are, have never reached. As if to underscore the urgency of the point, a contributor to Gorgeousness who lives outside the United States has asked not to be mailed the show catalog for fear its nude images could attract attention from the surveillance state under which he lives and covertly makes his erotic art.
Among the 78 works in the show, a pair of photograms by Derrick Woods-Morrow and printmaker Xander Fischer re-author Eadweard Muybridge’s equine locomotion studies in a light- sensitive emulsion of Woods-Morrow’s own semen. The anonymous Black jockey in Muybridge’s animation is thus re-christened in sperm, revealing what the writer Rebecca Solnit describes as “the erotics of motion.” The images critique the erasure of Black contributions both to the development of cinema and the origins of thoroughbred racing as an American sport. Typically, history has retained the name of the horse, Annie G., but not that of the rider.
HAUTNAH
A Group Show at RFDINSEL, Innsbruck
07.06.-27.07.2024
Eine UND-Ausstellung. Initiiert vom Artspace RFDINSEL
RFDINSEL hat eingeladen und das UND Heft hat freudig angenommen. Wie zwei Twinni-Hälften haben wir beide zueinander gefunden und versüßen euch mit einer ganz besonderen Gruppenausstellung den Sommer.
Doch diese Teamarbeit wird für keine Abkühlung sorgen. Denn wir lassen die Coolness hinter uns. Jetzt wird es hot, vor lauter Menschelei!
Unter dem Titel „Hautnah“ werden im Kubus, parallel zum neuen Heft, Körperbilder hinterfragt und gängige Erzählungen zu Körperlichkeit, Geschlecht und Sexualität auf den Kopf gestellt. Für alle, die das Licht anlassen wollen. Mit den knisternden Arbeiten von Sophia Süßmilch, Florian Hetz, Anna Neuwirth, Katharina Grafinger und Jan Soldat.
Wann hast du das letzte Mal über Sexualität gesprochen?
Nein, sich über den Lärm der Nachbarn zu beschweren, zählt hier nicht. Wann ging es für dich das letzte Mal darum, was Lust für dich bedeutet? Was dich anzieht? Was dich abstößt? Was du noch ausprobieren möchtest? Ist schon eine Weile her, oder?
Vor diesem Heft ging es uns nicht anders. Als Gesellschaft erzählen wir uns zwar, dass wir sexuell befreit sind, aber eigentlich finden Gespräche weiterhin nur alleine, hinter vorgehaltener Hand und unterm Bettlaken statt. Das stört uns schon recht lange und so sind wir losgezogen, um das zu ändern. Für uns selbst und für euch.
LAOKOON
A Solo Show at Kunstverein Goldberg
curated by Stefan Thiel
31.05.-23.06.2024
Kunstverein Goldberg presents a Soloshow of Berlin artist Florian Hetz.
Human skin is the largest organ of our body and a living testimony to our individual life stories. Every wrinkle, scar and shadow tells of personal experiences and emotions and refers to the unique story of each individual. Skin serves not only as a physical boundary, but also as an interactive interface that shapes our experience and our identity.
The photographs of fragments of ancient Greek statues contrast with human skin and at the same time show a connection. These statue fragments, which once represented gods, heroes and historical personalities, radiate a timeless consistency. However, the detailed shots of the fragments also reveal the traces of time and the destruction that does not spare even the most resistant marble. These fragments tell of the transience and the changes that affect all matter.
The juxtaposition of skin and marble fragments creates a dialogue about transience and destruction. How does our perception of beauty and durability change when we look at the fragility of both surfaces? The human skin, which is renewed daily and shaped by our experiences, and the marble, which has survived for centuries, but is nevertheless marked by destruction, reflect the duality of consistency and transience.
THE STORIES OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Love, Lust and Freedom is the first major Danish-produced exhibition with a focus on photography as a focal point for stories about living authentically as a queer. The artworks tell multifaceted stories that are about caring for yourself as the person you are, standing up for yourself, your desires and your desires and not least fighting for the right to love who you want - and how you want.
Based on historical material, the exhibition will unfold a wide range of both young and established photographers' depictions of queer love life in all its diversity; from touching coming-of-age stories and quiet glimpses of everyday life to poetic accounts of loneliness and dive into underground cultures that cultivate the uncompromising appetite for life and liberation.
The exhibition presents works by, among others: Samet Durgun, Nan Goldin, Marvel Harris, Florian Hetz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sven Marquardt, Christer Strömholm, Wolfgang Tillmans and Donal Talbot.
PHOTOGRAPHY - A QUEER HISTORY
by Flora Dunster & Theo Gordon, Octopus Publishing Group, 2024
Photography - A Queer History examines how photography has been used by artists to capture, create and expand the category 'Queer'. It bookmarks different thematic concerns central to queer photography, forging unexpected connections to showcase the diverse ways the medium has been used to fashion queer identities and communities.
low has photography advanced fights against LGBTQ+ discrimination? How have artists used photography to develop a queer aesthetic? How has the production anc circulation of photography served to satisfy the queer desire for images, and created transnational solidarities?
Photography - A Queer History includes the work of 84 artists. It spans different historical and national contexts, and through a mix of thematic essays and artist-centred exts brings young photographers into conversation with canonical images.
DÉSIR
A Group Show curated by Yves de Brabander at Instinct, Berlin
07.09.-16.09.2023
Our exhibition, Desire provides a thought-provoking exploration of sexual orientations, gender expressions, and the profound influence of desire on our identities and relationships. We celebrate the diverse spectrum of desire and sexuality while challenging traditional perspectives, ultimately aiming to foster a more inclusive and accepting society.
Drawing inspiration from Michel Foucault's examination of the fluidity of desire, our exhibition seeks to challenge the binary model of gender and embrace a more nuanced understanding of identity. We acknowledge that desire transcends fixed categories and instead acts as a dynamic force that influences how we perceive ourselves and engage with others.
Participating artists:
AntiGonna, Gio Black Peter, Emre Busse, Sacha Cambier de Montravel, Jack Davey, Yves de Brabander, Annique Delphine, Jochen Hass, Florian Hetz, Hinrich Kröger, Bruce LaBruce, Matt Lambert, Mathieu et Léolo, Łukasz Leja, Wayne Lucas, Nicky Miller, Slava Mogutin, Stuart Sandford, Hanna Schaich
UNUSUAL EXPERIENCE
A Solo exhibition curated by Mamali Shafahi at Everyday Gallery in Antwerp
14.07.-12.09.2023
Album Artwork for Bendik Giske
Image Campaign for Staatsballett Berlin, S23/24
SORRY I HURT YOU
a Booklet with 41 photos taken during the residency at the Tom of Finland foundation in Los Angeles, January-April 2023
Sold out
FRUIT.
A Group Show at Phil, Los Angeles
22.10.-12.11.2022
PHIL presents Fruit., a group exhibition curated by Tony Payne, which will open Oct 22nd in West Hollywood. With works by Chivas Clem, Domino, Kim Fisher, Florian Hetz, Jack Pierson, Keith Mayerson, Walker Payne, George Stoll, Tom of Finland, Greta Waller, and Karlheinz Weinberger.
SPECIES
A Solo Show as part of UFFICIO DELLA NOTTE, at The Diele, Zurich
23.09.-15.10.2022
Die Diele is pleased to be one of the host partners of UFFICIO DELLA NOTTE.
Die Diele shows «SPECIES» by the berlin based Photographer Florian Hetz
curated by neo seefried and Marcel Hörler
Pleasure – the sharing of joy – affects and connects people. Although certain practices, especially those that conform to non-normative, queer, non-monogamous and non-binary lives, have always been marginalised, criminalised or at least ignored by the institutions of power. Nevertheless the figures of the night have broken the limits of society’s decency. What still remains are questions: Where and how do we talk about pleasure? Which spaces are claimed and by whom? Are safe(r) spaces only dreams of a hidden utopia? To which extent do institutions determine what is sexually allowed/not allowed? And what does all this have to do with care work? In search of answers, UFFICIO DELLA NOTTE presents thirteen artistic positions that are shown in six different art spaces and clubs as well as in public spaces. The exhibition takes place from 23rd and 15th of October 2022 in Zurich and is combined with walks, a pleasure positive party and a panel on the topic of Sexwork.
By zooming in on everyday moments and bodies, Florian Hetz lifts the concrete of the physical and translates it into his own visceral language. His new work SPECIES imagines a new life for sextoys and examines their strange, abstract beauty. Most of those items of use are shamefully hidden away under beds or in drawers. But what happens when we deconstruct sex toys and transform them to give them a new life? Are they still something to be ashamed of, are they still sexual, or do they reveal a new side of themselves?
ALL TOGETHER
A Group Show at The Community, Paris
May 8th - June 26th
On the occasion of Tom of Finland’s birthday (8 May 1920), Tom of Finland Foundation and The Community have curated AllTogether, a group exhibition supported by Diesel, presenting Tom of Finland Foundation’s permanent collection to the public for the first time outside of Los Angeles.
Artists:
J. EPSTEIN, AL URBAN, ANDRE, ANNIE SPRINKLE, ATTILA RICHARD LUKACS, AURÉLIEN NOBÉCOURT-ARRAS, BASTILLE, BENÔIT PRÉVOT, BOB MIZER, BRUCE RAPP, CARRINGTON GALEN, CHRIS JOHNSON, DAVE PIBEL, DOMINO, DON BACHARDY, E.M.A. STUDIO, EMMA KOHLMANN, ETIENNE, FLORIAN HETZ, GEORGE QUAINTANCE, GIO BLACK PETER, GOH MISHIMA, GREGORY MASKWA, HEATHER BENJAMIN, HECTOR SILVA, HIROSHI SHIMOYAMA, JAY JORGENSEN, JEAN FERRARO, JESS SCOTT, JIM FRENCH, JIM SHAW, JOHN WATERS, JOHNNY SMITH, KENNY KNUTSON, KENNETH ANGER, LINK, MARCEL ALCALÁ, MARCELLO LUPETTI, MATT LAMBERT, MICHAEL KIRWAN, MICHAEL REYNOLDS & MARTYN THOMPSON, MICHEL LAGUERRE, MIGUEL ANGEL REYES, MIKE KUCHAR, MINORU, MR GRUTS, NIGEL KENT, OLAF, ORSEN, PALANCA, PATRICK LEE, PETER BERLIN, PHILIP CORE, PHUC LE, R. DANIEL FOSTER, REX, RICK CASTRO, RINALDO HOPF, ROB CLARKE, SAL SALANDRA, SETH BOGART, SHEREE ROSE, SILVIA PRADA, SIMON HAAS, SLAVA MOGUTIN, STANLEY STELLAR, STEVEN REIGNS, STUART SANDFORD, SULTAN, SUSANNA LUOTO, SUZANNE SHIFFLETT, TANK, TEDDY OF PARIS, THE HUN, TOM OF FINLAND, VALENTINE, VICTOR ARIMONDI, VIKTORIA RAYKOVA, and XAVIER GICQUEL.
Diesel continues to position itself as a cultural pioneer with its latest project, a two-pronged partnership with the Tom of Finland Foundation.
Launching to align with Pride Month, the initiative includes a Tom of Finland-inspired capsule collection and a group exhibition, "AllTogether," spotlighting erotic art across several decades.
For the apparel, the Tom of Finland Foundation provided Diesel with a selection of works from its LGBTQIA+ art collection to feature on separates and accessories ranging from denim jackets and shirts to tote bags and underwear.Tom of Finland's famous signature appears emblazoned on tighty-whities, but the beauty of the collection is its celebration of a range of queer artists: pieces by Heather Benjamin, Peter Berlin, Florian Hetz, Michael Kirwan, Silvia Prada, Palanca (AKA Pedro Santillana), and Tank (AKA Paul Tankersley) make an appearance.
As for the exhibition, "AllTogether" highlights over 70 artists who entrusted their work to the Tom of Finland Foundation archive.
HAUT
A Solo Show at PHOTO 2022, International Festival of Photography, Parliament Gardens, Melbourne
29.04.-22.05.2022
German photographer Florian Hetz presents a two site exhibition of Haut (German for ‘skin’) exploring the intimacy and sensuality of the body. HAUT questions the way we look at and perceive the human skin. The work can be seen installed in Parliament Gardens—and in a special Augmented Reality exhibition at Angel Music Bar.
Audience 18+
Haut has been supported by Goethe-Institut
17.05.2022, 7 - 8pm (AEST):
The Body: Personal, Political and Performative.
The body is our container for experiencing the world, it carries our histories, traumas and gifts. It is personal, political and performative. In this conversation we discuss how photographers are using the body as a site of expression and power.
With exhibiting artists Florian Hetz, Thandiwe Muriu, and Honey Long and Prue Stent. Chaired by Naomi Cass, Director Castlemaine Art Museum.
Free, bookings required
Gandel Digital Future Lab ACMI, Fed Square.
A historical group exhibition from the collection of Tom of Finland Foundation. Curated by Tom of Finland Foundation and The Community, proudly supported by Diesel.
AllTogether sets out to convey the individual stories of the artists. At the same time, the exhibition locates parallels, interactions, and influences between Tom of Finland Foundation, Tom’s aesthetic impact, and the community of artists that have formed throughout the years around them. The selection of works considers and shows the treatment of sexuality throughout decades: from the years of censorship, the sexual revolution, the subsequent HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the explosion of information – the expressions have varied between hypermasculine TOM’s Men and dandyish self assertiveness and the motifs featured orgiastic celebration and diabolical queerness. The exhibition also highlights the historical context and the queer experience from midcentury to today, where erotic arts, the intimate encounter of art and pornography, is still navigating between the art world and gay subcultures. In AllTogether, the love of freedom transcends gender and sexuality and allows the elevation of the erotic to high art. – Sini Rinne-Kanto, Curator of The Community
BEAUTIFUL INDISCRETIONS
A Group Show at Galerie Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam
27.03.-24.04.2022
Beautiful Indiscretions. A group show about the unapologetically indiscreet, chosen by Koes and Cokkie
Heike Kati Barath, Larissa Esvelt, Florian Hetz, Pieter Hugo, Paul Klemann, Sal Salandra, Koes Staassen
Beautiful Indiscretions. A group show about the unapologetically indiscreet, chosen by Koes and Cokkie.
Thinking about discretion we have all known moments in our lives where we had to be discreet; situations where we couldn’t be as forward as we would have wanted, where we might have felt othered by the world around us. ‘Beautiful Indiscretions’ brings together an international group of artists whose work deals with notions of speaking out in a seemingly joyous manner about topics that in the past often remained unseen.
The exhibited works deal with highly personal reflections on themes like identity, sexuality and religion while opposing strict norms set by mainstream society. Each artist succeeds in bringing a skillful approach that doesn’t just confront, but seduces the viewer to engage with what often is deemed to be indiscreet.
L’œil du Collectionneur
A Group Show curated by Jerome Prochiantz at Galerie Polka, Paris
14.-15.03.2022
Dans cette exposition que j’ai appelé L’ŒIL DU COLLECTIONNEUR, j’ai pris le parti de rendre hommage à la photographie francophone à mon sens pas assez mise en valeur.
Collectionneur passionné et membre actif de différents Comités professionnels de la Photographie d’Art, c’est depuis plus de 23 ans que j’ai été ainsi amené à échanger avec de nombreux artistes rencontrés au gré des lectures de portfolios, de festivals, de publications ou tout simplement grâce à une amitié qui s’est installée avec les artistes au cours du temps.
Quel plaisir de vous présenter sur deux soirées cette exposition de 19 photographes, de l’étudiante à la star avérée, dont pour la grande majorité l’important est d’être montré. Les photographies choisies sont le résultat d’une étroite collaboration entre l’artiste et moi-même.
Cette idée d’exposition collective, sans fil conducteur et sans interdits, n’a pour objet que de laisser les artistes s’exprimer librement et totalement. Pour ce faire et, compte tenu du contexte actuel, aucune image ne devra dépasser les 1200 euros et son prix d’achat, résultat d’une transaction entre l’acheteur et l’artiste, reviendra intégralement à ce dernier. L’acheteur repartira avec son œuvre sous le bras et le certificat d’authenticité de l’œuvre dans sa poche.
Les œuvres des dix-neuf artistes présentés sont sélectionnées et scénographiées par Jérôme Prochiantz.
The Gaze
A Group Show curated by Louis Wise at TJ Boulting, London
14.10.-20.11.2021
AdeY, Soufiane Ababri, James Bartolacci, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Adam Fearon, Alex Foxton, Sunil Gupta, Christopher Hartmann, Florian Hetz, Dan Kane, Cary Kwok, Michael Leonard, Gilbert Lewis, Herbert List, Kate Merry, Oluseye, Prem Sahib, Martin Sekera, Howard Tangye, Wilhelm Von Gloeden, Karlheinz Weinberger
TJ Boulting is delighted to present The Gaze, a group show curated by writer and editor Louis Wise. It takes as its starting point Moroni’s enigmatic and powerful portrait, The Tailor, which hangs in London’s National Gallery. His eyes, looking out directly at the viewer, are mysterious, touching and alluring, and have intrigued viewers for over 400 years. Bringing together contemporary and historical artists, The Gaze seeks echoes of this keystone of male portraiture, exploring the intimate, even unsettling relation between artist and sitter.
Louis Wise
The Gaze! Oh, I know - did you get it? Or rather, how long did it take you? I had to, I'm sorry. If it's a tad obvious, obviousness is part of the point here - part of the direct, somewhat bracing act of looking at someone, and them looking right back. To lock eyes with another can be a civilised thing, obviously, but it can entail more extreme things - sex, or violence, or the two enmeshed together. Not least when two men are involved.
I have always had a thing about eye contact. First, it was couched in fear. Living in Plymouth in the 1990s, it was vital to not exchange glances with any other boy in a random or surprising setting: a corridor, a bus, a gym changing room. To be seen to be looking would immediately mark you out as a poof. "What are you looking at?," was the default response - a panicked one, I see now, though at the time it seemed barked with some authority. And what was I looking at? Was I cruising them ("perving," we said then— so much less sensual) or was I just trying to suss them out? Trying to understand something, if only about myself? Sometimes the look was sexual, sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes it was just sexual on a sliding scale, which is actually just how most human interactions play out. But never mind the theories: to gaze at someone - not that gazing dreamily, roaming all over, was even a remote possibility back then - came with the clear consequence that you would probably get your head kicked in, and not in a chic Jean Genet kind of way.
Later, as I got older and came to London, "came out" as they say, I began to realise that you could tell who was gay or queer by the eye contact - a split second of recognition where the person was seeking you out exceptionally, and scrutinising you for signs. Some worry, still, but mixed far more thrillingly with sex and complicity. I realised also that there were those who avoided eye contact to an almost comical degree, which again, unfortunately for them, tended to reveal desire and/or angst in any case. Apparently I am quite a heavy gazer - I love to "lock eyes", and I've pulled quite a few men that way, words utterly by the by. In short, whether you hold the eye or studiously don't hold the eye, it can't be casual. We've surely felt this all the more recently, as months in masks have made us rely on our eyes all the more, or maybe made us even warier of them. Only the undesiring flicker casually over you. Which is some explanation — but not all — of the show.
I can't quite recall when I laid eyes on Moroni's The Tailor. I do know that he appeared to me quite logically, serenely, as a near-perfect work of art. Who is he? Why does this portrait exist? We don't really know. In a sense, that only heightens its appeal: most great works of art should remain a little hostage to mystery -- it allows them to evolve along the generations. People often remark that the picture is unusual because Moroni is portraying not an aristocratic patron, but a man with an occupation - witness the cloth he holds and his shears, still gaping a little. And yet speaking to Arturo Galansino, who curated the brilliant Moroni show at the RA a few years ago, it's clear it's not all totally sorted - the outfit and the kit don't quite match up, the accessories are almost ornamental. Conveniently, for our purposes, we can suggest it's a type of drag; we can certainly say the Tailor is trade.
We also know very little of Moroni's sexuality, but we know he was deeply religious. The one doesn't explain much about the other, though I feel like both, to be experienced fully, require a certain fervour. Certainly the Tailor lends himself to various fantasies, and it was notable how many artists in the show told me they loved him too. But I'm reluctant, like them I think, to reduce him to a mere pin-up. To me the vulnerability, the pride, the solitude of the Tailor is as pertinent as any come-hither look.
I feel the same about all the work in the show, which across a dazzling variety of styles and media shows that the act of looking at men, often by men (but not exclusively), is a surprising and fragile thing. It is very often political, but thank God, it's also fun. I want to make clear this is not an exhaustive selection - there are many more gazes, in many more guises, that I can't wait to engage with in the future. I just hope that this show is both a barometer of some progress, and yet still naughty, funny, savage - not too respectable or tamed. Frankly, that's not how I like to look. I'd like to salute Moroni, his Tailor, and of course all the artists who feature here - people who had to face their own desires and terrors just to make this kind of work at all. It's rarer than you think. Don't be afraid to gaze.
Visible Love
A Group Show curated by Container Love at Mitte Garten
18.06.-10.07.2021
During the pandemic queer life has almost completely vanished from the public eye. With bars and clubs closed, gatherings prohibited, there was hardly any way to meet with like-minded people. We’ve seen wonderful human beings starting to fade into the grey melancholy of our lockdown-reality. We had to do something. At our House of Love, our mission is to make love visible. Always and for everyone. So we decided to use our strongest weapon, art, to give a signal. We wanted to reinvent a space in Berlin Mitte, by showing people the naked truth. The idea of Container Love has always been to show up where you least expect it. In this case, in the middle of Berlin’s shopping paradise.
Some say it takes generations to change the behaviour of people, but we believe that by using the right kind of mediums we can take a huge step in the right direction. Because it doesn’t matter where you came from, what language you speak, how you dress, what you believe in or who you love – every human being deserves to feel visible in the eyes of others.
In the showroom, we ended up using the gorgeous photos of Florian Hetz, Shane Reynolds, AdeY, Kostis Fokas, Leo Maki, Agustin Hernandez and Laurence Philomène in rotation to turn window displays, mirrors and fitting rooms into living pieces of art.
Blame it on the Algorithm
curated by Bloomberg & Chanarin as part of “Send me an Image” at C/O Berlin
29.05.-02.09.2021
Photography has always been a social medium that has been shared with others. But why do people communicate with each other using images? And how do the “virtual distillates” of photographs change society? The thematic exhibition Send me an Image . From Postcards to Social Media outlines the development of photography from a means of communication in the nineteenth century to its current digital representation online. The focus is on the dialogue between historical forms of traveling images from photography over the past 150 years and contemporary artists from the 1970s onwards who work with both traditional and modern photographic techniques, uses, and means of communication.
BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!
A Group Show at Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles
27.05.-19.06.21
The Little Black Gallery and The Fahey/Klein Gallery are presenting BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!, a group exhibition curated by The Fahey/Klein Gallery and The Little Black Gallery co-founder, Ghislain Pascal, to promote queer and gay photography.
The exhibition features the works of BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! artists AdeY, Matthew Finley, Tim Hailand, Florian Hetz, Serge Le Hidalgo, Paul McDonald, Manuel Moncayo, Lucas Murnaghan, Sebastian Perinotti, Xavier Samré, Stuart Sandford, Niv Shank, Michael Søndergaard and Tyler Udall alongside FAHEY / KLEIN luminaries Ruven Afanador, Steven Arnold, Tom Bianchi, Greg Gorman, Paul Jasmin, Herbert List and Herb Ritts
This group exhibition will coincide with PRIDE Los Angeles.
