GAYLETTER

We just spent a weekend at the Tom Of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles. It was a very cool experience, we literally slept in Tom of Finland’s bed! The foundation is a mecca for erotic art. They have a library with the biggest collection of erotic art in the world. Which is why this event immediately jumped out to me. Featuring over 60 artists, the Dirty Little Drawings exhibition started in 2003 as an opportunity for collectors to buy affordable art from many of the artists featured at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. This year there is a “dizzying array of original erotic art works...No two of these artists approach their work or represent masculinity in exactly the same way, whether the subject is portrayed as a heroic figure, a love object or an objectified play thing. Each artist executes his drawing with keen insight, skill and sensitivity revealing the evolving way we view the male figure as an object of desire.” This is sure to be a popular event, so much so that to ease overcrowding they will not be serving refreshments. We suggest you grab a drink beforehand then head on over to pick up some sexy drawings while you’re still a little buzzed.  —tom

Make Me Feel Like A Woman is a group show at the Long Gallery all the way up in Harlem (I only say that because I’m lazy and live downtown). The show “deconstructs ideas and stereotypes of “womanhood” through work that presents 21st century narratives of American women. The exhibition catalyzes discussion on how women are perceived, analyzed, often disregarded as people, and frequently acknowledged simply as objects.” It features work by Linda Gallagher, Daniela Puliti, Tiffany Smith, and Ted Partin. What’s most exciting to me is the fact that Nomi Ruiz of Hercules & Love Affair, and Jessica 6 fame will be playing music at the opening. This is the perfect thing to do on a Sunday afternoon. Get on the 6 train like a young J-Lo and head on up to Harlem for some incredible art and beautiful music. On the way back you can pick up some fragrant oils from the street vendors on 125th st. Last time I was there, they were selling an oil named Michelle Obama. I mean, who doesn’t want to smell like Mrs O!  —tom

I learned about the artists/collective McDermott & McGough after seeing an artwork titled “Violate Me, In Violent Times” created by them at Sperone Westwater a few years ago. I went nuts for it — I even instagrammed it. Then, after I went online to do more research and I loved lots of the work they’ve created. “McDermott & McGough are best known for using alternative historical processes in their photography, including the techniques of cyanotype, gum bichromate, salt, tri color carbo, platinum and palladium. Among the subjects they approach are popular art and culture, religion, medicine, advertising, time, fashion and sexual behavior.” This is their first exhibition at James Fuentes gallery, their new works “are not only an extension of their idiosyncratic practice, but also reevaluations of their oeuvre...” Going through this body of work, I was very impressed. It’s all very present. There’s a very clever hand-carved wooden table with lots of penis and tits that’s just incredible, oil on canvas paintings with golden frames that I’d love to own, works containing typography made out of naked humans and animals, references to early 20th century cartoons, some incredible vases that also happen to have men having sexual encounters on them and some other work that I cannot wait to spend some time looking at in person. Go check out before the show closes on October 23rd. It’s rich.  —Abi

We covered this exhibition in the letter and on our site previously, but we just had to again as it’s a very important exhibition that you shouldn’t miss if you are in NYC — Use this as your reminder, you still have time though it closes on October 23rd. Here’s what one of our writers Chris wrote about it the first time: “Artists, including Kia Labeija, David Wojnarowicz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Bill Jacobson and more, give voice to perspectives that are too often suppressed, and [Art AIDS America] reveals how they have changed both the history of art in America and the response to this disease.” Featuring more than 125 works spanning from 1981 to the present...” This week, BOFFO is co-hosting an “intimate guided tour of Art AIDS America, an exhibition at The Bronx Museum.” The capacity is limited, so you need you to arrive early (15 minutes prior to tour). Reservation is required. Get to it!  —Abi

This sounds fascinating. The show explores ideas around sickness as not a state we must rid ourselves of, but as a condition that is a natural part of life, and something we can learn to adapt to as part of our journey on this earth. There’s 5 videos that explore this topic from a variety of angles. “In Doreen Garner’s surgical performance, Procedure, animal parts are cauterized and sewn together to a classical music soundtrack. Covered in acupuncture needles, Linda Montano chants the story of her ex-husband’s passing in Mitchell’s Death. Black men voice the personal and social transformation that comes with being HIV positive in Marlon Riggs’ poetic Je Ne Regrette Rien. In Kissing Doesn’t Kill, a series of playful public service announcements, Tom Kalin and Gran Fury push for the politicization of the AIDS epidemic. It’s Cool, I’m Good presents Stanya Kahn as an escaped patient, who leads nurses on a comedic tour of an equally wounded Los Angeles landscape.” In the show notes they mention that “Radical vulnerability might be the only tool we have left in the face of pain.” I love that idea. Surrender is often our greatest savior.  —tom

Richard Avedon is a legend in the world of the photography. It’s a pretty obvious statement, but one I think is worth acknowledging. “During the course of his legendary, 60 year-long tenure as the preeminent, quintessential fashion photographer, Avedon shaped contemporary image-making and influenced international aesthetics through his iconic fashion work, portraiture series, reportage and sheer mastery of technique.” This week, Visionaire is presenting an exhibition of Avedon’s work as a director. The exhibition is in collaboration with Marla Weinhoff, set designer and long-time Avedon collaborator. It features an extensive collection of his work including “a series of never-before-seen Calvin Klein Jeans casting interviews from The Richard Avedon Foundation archives, 35 fashion models from the 1980s and 1990s reveal personal answers to Avedon’s questions heard off camera. These interviews, which continue the theme of the artist’s presence in the ensuing pieces in the exhibition, reveal both Avedon’s meticulous process, as well as an attempt to elucidate for the viewer the subject’s essence — a notion often ignored today when concerned with the traditionally silent and passive model.” There’s plenty of other work on display in this exhibition that runs for around 2 weeks. Bring a sharp eye and an open mind.  —tom