GAYLETTER

I know, that’s a looooong title for a show but I feel compelled to tell you about it before it closes this Saturday, January 17. What I can discern from the exceedingly high brow press release from the Gagosian Gallery is that Takashi Murakami has created these new works in response to his exploration of Japanese art produced in the aftermath of historic natural disasters. There are several vast canvases, quite colorful and seemingly playful yet dark in tone with elements of sci-fi, manga, Buddhist and Shinto imagery.

In addition there is an enormous 56 ton replica of a sanmon (sacred gate) that guards Buddhist temples. Due to the expansive proportions of the gallery, Murakami is able to exhibit works the size of which you rarely see in a setting of this nature. Enough said, if you can make it over to Chelsea by Saturday have a look in on one of the more captivating shows I have seen yet this new year.

FREE, 10:00AM-6:00PM, Gagosian Gallery, 555 W. 24th St. NY, NY. Closes Saturday, January 17, 2015. …

Samuel Fosso was born in 1962 in Cameroon. At the age of 13 he opened his own photo studio. During the day he would take portraits for paying clients, at night he would turn the camera on himself shooting some of the best selfies of the last century. “Fosso’s expressive black-and-white self-portraits from the 1970s make reference to popular West African culture — musicians, the latest youth fashions, and political advertising — constituting a sustained and unprecedented photographic project that explores sexuality, gender, and African self-representation.”

Fosso’s photos dressed as Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis, Patrice Lumumba, Halie Salassie and many other African American leaders are beautiful, evocative…they are quite frankly the cutting up. We suggest you take the first opportunity to see Fosso’s work, and don’t be afraid to take a selfie in front of Fosso’s wonderful selfies, we think he’d like that.

Here’s a preview of the work you’ll see at the gallery. All images © Samuel Fosso. Courtesy The Walther Collection and Jean Marc Patras / Galerie.

FREE, 12:00PM-6:00PM, The Walther Collection Project Space, 526 West 26th St. Suite 718. NY, NY. …

Benjamin Fredrickson, a New York City-based artist originally from Minneapolis, opens his first solo exhibition at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in Chelsea on January 8. His show features “unique polaroid photographs” that document his years as a sex worker in the Midwest, his community of gay men, and his private sexual life. As the press release states the constant theme throughout this body of work “is the longing for, and sometimes the event, of human connection.” 

In his images you’ll find lots of thrilling nudity and fetish content. We had the chance to ask the artist a few questions and he was generous enough to share with us a preview of what to expect in the exhibition, which is running until February 28, 2014.

When did you take your first photograph?  Many years ago, my interest in photography began when I was a teenager, in high school.

Why did you decided to document your sex life?  I was interested in documenting my queer community and my personal experiences, the sex part comes with it.

Do you only shoot film?  Yes. I shoot on film using various medium and large format cameras. For this project I shot on Polaroid instant pack film.  I studied photography and was taught by amazing instructors on how to create a photograph using conventional analog photography methods.

How long were you a sexual worker for? Are you still a sexual worker? No, I am not a sex worker any longer, that was done years ago before moving to NYC.  …

From December 4th-7th the “hetero friendly” Hotel Gaythering will be hosting the first Queer Biennial during Miami Art Basel 2014 titled “Art on the Edge in a Warm Climate.” Bringing together some of the biggest names in the Queer art world. The show features a large range of different media, from installations to drawing salons. It’s curated by Rubén Esparza and presented by Alex Guerra and Sephan Ginez.

Some of the featured artists (which include some GAYLETTER friends and contributors) are Rick Castro, Ben Cuevas, Rubén Esparza, Connie Fleming, Jon Vaz Gar, Angela Gleason, Glen Hanson, Chasen Igleheart, Josef Jasso, Brian Kenny, Bruce LaBruce, Alex La Cruz, Scooter LaForge, Jeremy Lucido, Ian MacKinnon, Slava Mogutin, Mel Odom, Gio Black Peter, Miguel Angel Reyes, Robert W. Richards, Tawnie Silva, Jacques Smith,  Alonso Tapia, Joey Terrill, Maurice Vellekoop, Rich Yap, Austin Young and the list goes on. If you are in Miami this week and want to take a break from the massive fair and possibly run away from some of the most pretentious galleries in the world this is the place for you. If you are not into queer specific art, maybe because you are homophobic or ashamed of being gay, or simply “don’t like labels” but you want to get laid during the day, you’d probably have a good chance here. They’ll be hosting several receptions during Basel on December 4, 5, 6, 7, from 7:00PM – 11:00PM — told you, there’s gonna be plenty of cruising! …

Capturing potent portraits of friends, body parts, objects, and himself (pictured above), 24-year-old Benjamin Ackermann’s photography lays bare an audacious, compelling depiction of youth. Bruises, blood, semen, and saliva are all prominent focal points, thrown in sharp relief against patchworks of skin that cover a refreshingly disparate range of body types. His work is often explicit and unrelenting, providing ludic access points to moments from the artist’s life that come together like a joyously vulgar, Instagram-ready descendant of Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Codependency. It’s no wonder he’s called his Tumblr, where he publishes his photography, a “visual autobiography” of his own life: as a group, his work forms a deeply personal collection of loaded imagery that act as embodiments of Ackermann’s own resolute notions on intimacy, queerness, and desire.

Born and raised in Southern California, Ackermann moved to New York City two and a half years ago with the help of friend and photographic muse Hannah Boyne. “When she heard I wanted to move to New York, she flew me out and stayed with me for a week until I got my footing,” Ackermann explains. “She changed my life forever.” The move has certainly paid off: the past few years of experimentation have revealed a keen eye for detail, color, and composition. Though he’s fresh to photography, his work already demonstrates a visceral, thought-provoking artist to watch.

We reached out to Ackermann to ask him a few questions about how he defines his visual autobiography, taking photos of money shots, and what he thinks the future of photography looks like. …

This book of drawings called Colored Dudes by Leo Rydell Jost is a compilation of his first 44 artworks that he has been working on since June 2014. He was encouraged to self-publish this book by his boyfriend Luis Venegas who’s the creator of the amazing publications EY! Magateen and Candy. Luis also helped with the art direction of Colored Dudes.

Leo told me more about his process in creating these charming drawings and how the internet played a major part while he was developing his technique, “I’m addicted to Tumblr, there is something in its randomness that won’t let me stop scrolling. So one day I thought that I should do something with all the reblogs I did…” When he started drawing this body of work he was influenced by the artists Cocteau, Warhol, Baldessari.

His drawings, which are a combination of paper cut outs, tracing paper and other stuff from the garbage that he glues together, are effortless and arranged in a very casual way,  he explained to me, “I don’t usually have much control over what I’m working on…it’s not so much about symbolism nor meaning of what you are trying to put behind things, it’s almost completely aesthetic…I’m always working with the computer, so I emulated the way I worked with Photoshop: layers, opacity, cut/ paste…”

The book Colored Dudes is 70 pages, full color and is in a limited run of 100 copies (each book is signed and numbered). It’s sold out online, Yes! …

Last night I had the pleasure to visit the launch of Bedell Cellars’ First Crush Red 2013, a light and juicy blend of merlot and cabernet franc whose label bears the image of a woman’s face created by one of our favorite artists, Mickalene Thomas. The bright collage was created in preparation for a painting in Thomas’ Tête de Femme series, and perfectly represents the spirit of the radiant blend that lies inside. Her image joins a prestigious roster of artworks that grace the front of bottles from Bedell.

Bedell, owned by the art collector Michael Lynne, has already engaged in a number of artist collaborations. Previous labels have been created by Barbara Kruger, Chuck Close, Ross Bleckner, Eric Fischl, April Gornik and Howard Schatz. The First Crush Red 2013 is created from sustainably farmed young vines on the North Fork of Long Island, and is as enjoyable to drink as it is to look at. I’m already brainstorming what to do with my bottle after I drink it! I’m tempted to keep it unopened as an art piece, but with that excellent juice inside, I doubt I’ll be able to resist. Perhaps we’ll drink it on GAYLETTER thanksgiving — its bright fruit will pair easily with a range of foods, and everyone can appreciate Mickalene Thomas’ phenomenal work in the center of the table.

Get it here. …