| Marc Arrañaga, provocateur
of queer art in Los Angeles, is staging an event to showcase
five artists representing West Coast contemporary queer aesthetics.
Over the past 20 years these creative radicals lovingly crafted
and painstakingly photographed, drew, painted and recorded their
queer visions. Now, as mid-career milestones, their best works
are documented in beautiful and well-crafted books for the entire
world to enjoy.
Tom Bianchi loves men and men love Tom Bianchi.
Bianchi’s book, On the Couch Vol. I, is an incredible
success. A favorite of our generation, Tom loves to focus not
only on the male figure, but male love and companionship. He
has recently released a documentary on the making of, On
The Couch Vol. II, which has been a success at film festivals.
Volumes One and Two of On The Couch are his 10th and
11th books, and they create, together with their Internet and
film expressions, a comprehensive record of the sexual energy
of the gay community.
Tom documents a broad range of real men who fearlessly and
shamelessly demonstrate a comprehensive array of sexual activity.
Bianchi has pioneered the use of the internet by prepublishing
all of his new books and films at TomBianchi.com in story format
significantly longer than the books or films themselves, which
are actually artifacts of the site.
Henning von Berg’s eye-catching images
have been published worldwide. His current book, Universal,
in collaboration with German photographer/graphic designer Kingdome
19, features well-endowed models from all continents.
Kingdome 19 reworks his and Henning’s negatives in his
darkroom and includes script and mythological symbols. The result
of this complex and meticulous process is 160 one-of-a-kind,
handcrafted 12” x 16” fine art prints in sepia tone,
so called photo-graphics.
The images are reminiscent of early Daguerreotypes with a special
intimacy related to the figure in the photo. Each photo is unique
and no two are alike. Henning shares his time between Los Angeles
and Berlin.
Rick Castro considers himself a folk artist
as his work is made for and created with a kindred group. Rick's
photographs and films explore the wide world of fetish and the
fringes of sex culture. His work has been published in artist’s
editions and exhibited in galleries and institutions worldwide.
His new book published by Fluxion Editions titled, 13 Years
of Bondage, is truly a precious and stylish product, besides
publishing 3,000 copies, the publisher created 200 special edition
copies, each with their own case and a 7 x 10 image of one of
the prints from the book.
Glen Hanson’s world of visual fantasy
extends over a variety of mediums. His illustrations have appeared
around the world on book and CD covers, on the runways of Milan,
and in magazines like L’uomo Vogue, Maxim and
Variety. He has designed and art directed animated
shows for MTV and Disney and co-creates the popular syndicated
gay comic strip Chelsea Boys now in development as a series
for the new gay network LOGO.
To give life to the visions of hot fantasy men that “strutted
in his head”, Glen came up with his “G-MEN”.
The first ever compilation of these colorful, sexy and humorous
images has been published by Bruno Gmünder in a hardcover
book called G-Man. Glen currently lives and works in
Los Angeles.
Kevin King, who recently came ‘out’
as the artist known to many only as BEAU, has
published a pulp-fiction style pin-up book titled, BEAUMEN,
a compilation of his most beautiful paintings and drawings.
Kevin’s prolific work has been featured as companions
to erotic narratives in magazines such as, Men, Freshmen
and numerous book covers for Alyson Books. In addition to creating
the character BEAU, King has exhibited his fine art work, which
has been shown in several galleries throughout California, and
has worked in the Film industry in Hollywood.
In the foreword to Kevin’s new book, filmmaker, artist
and author Clive Barker writes, “Once in a while an artist
comes along who want to give us more than a hard-on and a quick
orgasm. The erotic subject becomes a framework which will allow
him to make art.”
King is currently developing his photographic skills to produce
another book based on his narrative ideas. King currently divides
his time between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Marc Arrañaga is an independent curator
and art historian. Formerly, as Director and Curator of the
LA Gay and Lesbian Center’s Advocate Gallery, he staged
many exhibitions featuring national and international queer
artists. In addition, he produced a lecture series for queer
art historians writing about gay and lesbian history. He is
currently working on a Jean Cocteau exhibition that will travel
to Japan in 2005/6.
Bruno Gmünder Verlag, based in Berlin,
Germany, is the largest publisher of gay related imagery in
the world. They have generously agreed to sponsor this event. |
