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In which our art critics highlight their favorite works on view at Artomatic
Not that I’m prude, but seldom is it that I find anything dazzling about nude figure drawing or nude photography. For Artomatic, too often the photographs are little more than softcore porn shots (with or without a sword), or feminist questions about the body with soft lighting suggestive of, well, softcore. Meh.
This year’s Artomatic even has a few hardcore porn exhibits asking the question “What is porn?” by exhibiting Photoshop-filtered images of fellatio. In one case, there’s an intrepid painter who has earned the “Scariest Pussy Award” from blogger Lenny Campello. Most of the rest—-drawings, paintings—-falls under academic exercise.
Rahul A. Saha, aka “Eye of Ra,” got a leg up (in some cases, literally) by asking his models to strike a variety of poses that are reminiscent of the Village People‘s Y.M.C.A. on steroids. In other words, they spell stuff—-lots of stuff. His 10th floor exhibit isn’t revolutionary. But in a show with a bunch of yawning nudes, and on a floor with a barrage of sculpture, he gets a gold star for effort. Legibility…not so much.