MATERIALKINK
June 30, 2017 through January 14, 2018
Leather. Rubber.. Steel. Wax. Rope. Hair. Fabric. These and other materials structure and accompany the varied identities and practices that broadly comprise Leather sex, BDSM, kink, and fetishism. Almost always in direct relation to the body, these and many other materials are hyper-charged surfaces, objects, and substances invested with erotic significance and value, accumulations of personal history, fantasies, attachments, affects, and desires. The materiality of kinky sex matters a great deal.
Curated by Chicago-based artist José Santiago Pérez, MATERIALKINK features artworks that expand the boundaries of erotic art through contemporary explorations of the materialities that accompany and structure the lifeworlds and diverse practices of radical sex. Matter, desire, and power exchange are simultaneously celebrated and examined through this gather of artworks spanning painting, sculpture, mixed media, photography, video, textile, and installation.
MATERIALKINK is the first group exhibition of contemporary art at the Leather Archives & Museum. Exhibited works, ranging from mixed media wall-based art, to sculpture, painting, and photography, and will examine the potent encounters between art-making processes and the materiality of kinky sex. MATERIALKINK features works by Michael Blake (Brooklyn), Chloe Cooper (Portland, OR), Clarita Lulić (UK), Luis Mejico (Chicago), James Murray (Chicago), David Nasca (Chicago), Heather Raquel / Ms. Philadelphia Leather (Philadelphia), Tamara Santibañez (Brooklyn), Lauren Steinberg (Chicago), Vincent Tiley (Brooklyn), Jade Williams (Chicago), and Derrick Woods-Morrow (Chicago).