GAYLETTER

Aneta Bartos is a Polish girl who started as a fashion photographer and now works as a fine artist. Based on older images I looked at of her work it seemed that her main focus was women. For this exhibition she is taking a break from pussy and showing 12 photographs of nude boys shot with a medium format camera. The show is tittled Boys and is curated by Jon Feinstein. It features “men who have agreed to let her photograph them masturbating in the small, dimly lit rooms of the Carlton Arms Hotel in New York City.” Yes! Penis! I got in touch with the artist to ask some questions, but all I got back was “What’s GAYLETTER?” I should have just told her to Google us, it’s the easiest thing to do. Anyways, I’m intrigued by her gritty, erotic, beautifully rendered photos. Masturbation is a very intimate moment to capture, I wonder if she slept with any of the subjects?  —Abi

Andreaaaaa! I am so excited about Andrea Mary Marshall’s latest exhibition opening this Thursday the 17th at Allegra LaViola Gallery. Last year at her first solo show I developed a crazy connection with her work. I went nuts over her “Vague” mag covers. I had to use almost all of my savings to get one, I mean they weren’t that expensive, but you know how it is when you’re poor. Ever since, we’ve been curious what Andrea is going to do next and now we know. Her latest show is a collection of paintings, photography, video and performance titled: Gia Condo. Andrea “approaches the enigma of the Mona Lisa through self-portraits rendered in diverse media. The Mona Lisa is the world’s most recognizable and replicated painting...” Also, she “pays homage to artists previously inspired by da Vinci’s iconic image. Marshall draws inspiration from the renderings of Dali, Duchamp and Warhol.” To me, her latest work is more complex and just as cunty. I may have to get a new credit card and max that shit out, to score one of these.  —Abi

It might not come as such a surprise that David Lachapelle’s new show features wax figures. I mean the dude has been photographing a real life wax figure for years (Amanda Lepore). And while his new wax figures may not have nearly as much sparkle as Amanda, they still make compelling subjects. The idea for the show started in 2009, when LaChapelle “learned of the break-in and vandalism of the National Wax Museum in Dublin, Ireland, and was granted permission to photograph the destroyed figures. LaChapelle continued photographing figures at two additional wax museums – one in California and one in Nevada – to complete his vision for the collection.” The show is spread across the two Paul Kasmin galleries in Chelsea (relax, they’re a block from each other). The shows feature “subjects ranging from politicians such as Ronald Reagan, to celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Jackson, to the artist’s depiction of The Last Supper...” Don’t go expecting Madame Tussauds, most figures have been dismembered and are photographed in brown boxes. It’s super creepy, but totally genius.  —tom

A couple weeks ago I went to Joe’s Pub to see Joey Arias perform. During Joey’s break Narcisister came out to perform a song or two, but to be honest I didn’t understand much of what she said, yet I couldn’t take my eyes of her. Her look was intriguing and strange (strange is always good). I guess that was because her face was behind a mask. Narcissister is You is her first solo exhibition and it opens this Thursday, “exploring the possibilities of identification through the act of self-reflection and self-love.” Each time I looked at different images I can’t help but get more and more excited. These bold and fucked-up pieces remind me of progressive artists like Cindy Sherman and Laurie Simmons. The show contains all kinds of work from self-portraiture, videos, to “participatory sculptures.”  Narcisister is filled with self love, and I get it, because as Rupaul says “If you don’t love yourself how the hell are you going to love somebody else?” Can I get an Ahmen!  —Abi

I went to Winston Chmielinski’s opening of his latest exhibition of paintings last Thursday titled Ecstatic Skin. There were too many straight people trying to distract me from seeing the work. When I finally pushed my way to the front, I was mesmerized by the harmonious use of color in his work — his paintings are dreamy, colorful and vibrant. I asked Winston what he wanted to communicate with this body of work, and what’s with the name Ecstatic Skin? He replied “I almost want to compare my painted surface to the insides of a pinball machine — something is ricocheting around wildly but can never leave. A kind of potential energy builds up. Simply....I want people to stop and look. Without shock, without obvious visual hooks.” If you can get your hands on one of his paintings, you should do so. Only 24 years old, and already producing work like this...  —Abi

Two letters ago we included the first part of this show by Superm (Slava Mogutin & Brian Kenny) titled: Beauty. Well, the second part of the show, Hell, is opening this Thursday and we knew you’d be mad if we didn’t tell you all about it. This group exhibition features work by some of the coolest progressive homosexuals living on this planet, who also happen to create awesome art. They include: Michael Stipe, Franco B, Gio Black Peter, Josh Lee, Asher Levine, Francois Sagat (pictured), Casey Spooner, Neil Young and other surprise guests... I just peed myself a little from excitement! This is gonna be a great show, one that will remind you of how lucky you are to be queer and living in NYC. It’s also such a fun crowd, which is important, cos we all know it’s not just about the art — there’s nothing worse than going to a show where the artist is too precious to talk to anyone.  —Abi

Super-power-gay-couple Slava Mogutin & Brian Kenny are always busy creating art, working together under the handle SUPERM. Their latest show: Beauty and Hell­­, a two part exhibition, part one: Beauty is opening at Envoy Enterprises this Thursday, part two: Hell, opens on Nov. 29th. The work was created during hurricane Sandy. I’m glad they used their time productively, our idea of productivity during Sandy was playing Monopoly in the dark until 4am. Brian explains “We were just killing time during hurricane Sandy, going through our vintage porn collection—castrating, dissecting and mutilating boys and turning them into sexless amorphic metabods.” They tells us they were “inspired by the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud and the art of Hans Bellmer and Pierre Molinier.” The resulting “skingraphs collages” are intriguing, graphic and cleverly executed. I looked through just a sliver of the work and I’m already sold. Slava adds “Making art with candle lights is so bromantic! I used to turn art into porn, so I thought, why not turn porn into art?” Right on Superm!  —Abi