A taste of gay Japan
Gay art lovers are in for a treat this month with Boys Life, an exhibition featuring the work of over 30 gay Japanese artists.
From manga to erotica, pop to hardcore, each artwork depicts Japanese gay life from the Edo period to the pop culture of the Shinjuku streets, and features the work of gay manga illustrators, magazine photographers and -˜Kawaii’ erotic sculptors.
All those exhibiting are professional gay artists whose work has been published in Japan and around the world, including Gengoroh Tagame, a well known and widely published gay erotic artist, and Kenya Shimizu (whose untitled work is pictured). Shimizu is an award-winning gay artist. In 2001 he received the second and third prizes at the Emerging Erotic Artist Contest of the Tom of Finland Foundation.
This type of group exhibition rarely, if ever, occurs in Japan, where gay culture is largely underground.
info: The exhibition will be showing in Sydney as part of the Mardi Gras festival, at the Tap Gallery in Darlinghurst from February 24 – March 8.
