NY Studio Gallery is pleased to present Hotter Than July: A Sexploration, a journey into what feels good and what gets us off. This group exhibition represents sex without judgment or shame. Gustav Klimt said, “All art is erotic.” Sexual pleasure, like a powerful piece of art, can carry the participant to a new level of consciousness. When choosing work for the show, the curator’s reaction had to be visceral, a raw response to each artist’s sexual odyssey about pleasure, vulnerability, nakedness, fun and enjoyment.

In the early 90’s, while Madonna was producing her SEX book, ex-porn actresses turned performance artists Annie Sprinkle and Veronica Vera formed a new movement called Post Porn Modernism. Believing that sex should be a positive experience they declared a war against pornographic censors’ anti-fun, anti-love and anti-life messages in their manifesto. This past decade, photographer Terry Richardson, along with other sexual provocateurs, have tested us even more. Little by little we accept pornography in our art. However, much of this work either leaves no room for the imagination, or not as alluring simply because it feels too… real. Hotter Than July flirts with you, fucks with you a little and leaves you wanting more.

In Marne Lucas and Jacob Pander’s film The Operation a couple is being watched by a team of ‘observers’ and shot with a thermal infrared camera. Similarly, Matthew Goldman’s locked box invites us to become the voyeur by looking through the keyhole to watch a blend of the banal and sexy. P Elaine Sharpe’s personal collection of pin-ups, partnered with her drawings, pull its subjects from their original context and re-imagines them as the modern female. Paul Richmond’s delightfully pulpy Cheesecake Boy paintings address the appeal of doing something that may or may not be taboo, and the erotic result of being caught in the act. Set in a stark hotel room, Reuben Negron’s series of paintings entitled Dirty Dirty Love convey a bold narrative of role-play, bondage and S&M. Ned and Aya’s photographs of women are postcards of modernized coquettes and sirens, who dress and undress, flirting, tempting and acting out fantasies. In contrast, Constance and Eric’s photographs of gray and out of focus couples change lovemaking into something abstract and faceless, concealing the identity of each person to free the viewer to project his/her own image. In more playful fashion, Mark Freedman’s collages have a direct correlation between food, sex, and sex on the brain. Gavin Wilson’s hyperrealistic drawings depict characters tied up in various positions blending nature with sex like botanical eroticism.