My Gay Eye – Homage to Tom Of Finland / Folsom Special
Curator: Rinaldo Hopf
Preview opening: Friday 17th August 2018 7pm
Duration: 17th August - 11th September 2018
FOLSOM Special event: Saturday 8th September 6-10pm Location: The Ballery, Nollendorfstraße 11-12, 10777 Berlin
Two of my Polaroid works from the exhibition.
From the 17th of August, in time for the Folsom Fetish Fair in Berlin, The Ballery in Schöneberg, Berlin is showing in an exhibition and book presentation "My Gay Eye - Homage to Tom of Finland". The exhibition includes original Tom of Finland drawings as well as a selection of the artworks of the current anthology of the same name.
Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen, 1920-1991) has created a fascinating gay world with his iconographic drawings. This special volume of the series "My gay eye" presents largely unknown pages of Tom of Finland's work, such as Facsimiles of leaves from his scrapbooks, which illustrate his working process, as well as his effect on subsequent artist generations. In addition, the diverse work of the Tom of Finland Foundation is presented. For the first time, selected treasures from their extensive collection of gay art are published, probably the largest of its kind in the world. Several original drawings and prints from this collection are now being presented in Berlin.
Durk Dehner was the life partner Tom of Finland and together with him founded the Foundation, which he has been directing ever since. It is thanks to his tireless work that Tom's works are represented in numerous museums today and are part of the global pop culture
Curator Durk Dehner on 10 erotic artworks inspired by Tom of Finland (in English): https://hornet.com/stories/my-gay-eye-tom-of-finland-two/
https://www.tomoffinlandfoundation.org/
Curator and artist Rinaldo Hopf, was a resident artist at the Tom of Finland Foundation in 2017. As an artist he is represented by The Ballery in Berlin.
https://www.rinaldohopf.com
The Ballery is an art gallery and project space in the neighbourhood of Schöneberg in Berlin. Since opening in 2014, it has aimed to present a balanced cross section of society in a dynamic format that picks up a variety of artistic approaches. The Ballery places a strong focus on presenting perspectives that support diversity and equality within the community. – https://www.theballery.com
Featured artists:
Tom of Finland - Johnny Alexandre Abbate - Aries - Henning von Berg - Rick Castro - Greg Day - Norman Deigan - Domino - Etienne - Gorilla - Florian Hetz - Rinaldo Hopf - The Hun - Nigel Ken - Michael Kirwan - Patrick Lee - Link - Yu-liang Liu - Minoru - Sven Oliver - Palanca - Stuart Sandford
Special guest artist: DJ Hell
Contact for press and interview requests: Simon Williams l Nollendorfstrasse 12, 10777 Berlin Tel: +49 (0)30/2100 3124 l Cell: +49 (0)175 5597977 l Email: theballery@gmail.com