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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Berlin-based illustrator Kaethe Butcher draws girls with fiercely unique personalities. Written words are dropped onto her drawings, revealing the internal thoughts of young women figuring out the complexities of love and life. Her quirky characters are the kind of girls who smoke cigarettes in bath tubs while contemplating their existence in a chaotic world. Many of Butcher's sweet, sensuous drawings border on erotica. Butcher's women waver between losing themselves in passionate throws and drawing away in jealous suspicion. They question their lovers just as they question themselves. The combination of exacting body language, block text and a monotone color palette reinforce her character's inner world as opposed to her physical actions or being.
In honor of Valentine's Day, the annual "Dirty Show" is an erotic art exhibit featuring many notable contemporary artists, such as Ron English, H.R. Giger, Aaron Nagel, Glenn Barr, Alexandra Manukyan, Colin Christian, and many others. The show will be held at the exhibition center of the Russell Industrial Complex in Detroit from February 12 through February 21. The various artists in the show give their take on salacious subject matter, sometimes in unexpected ways.
The way we express ourselves intimately with our partners in real life seldom resembles the glamorous heaving and sighing of movie sex scenes. Italian artist Riccardo Mannelli eschews these cinematic cliches when he conveys personal moments between couples. In his ongoing series of works on paper, Mannelli's approach to erotica feels natural and unpretentious. The bodies he focuses on are not idealized by any means: He honestly depicts his subjects' aging physiques, tattoos, and body hair. By embracing these so-called imperfections, Mannelli celebrates their beauty.