Rick Castro “Fetish King: Seminal Photographs 1986 – 2019” Opening At Tom House In Los Angeles

The artist’s sex positive imagery is darkly erotic, elegant, and at times, sinister. A powerful and imaginative figure that emerged in the Los Angeles underground during the late ’80s, His photographs are characterized by potent and visceral tableaux, tinged with sadomasochism, leather and sexual pleasure. From the artist’s fetishizing of Tony Ward in the ’80s, to capturing moments, places and the people of the underground scene in Los Angeles nightlife in the ’90s and ’00s, he continues his pictorial career and fascination with lust, desire and kink producing elegant portraiture of celebrated artists and the demi-monde. The exhibition will be on view until April 27 by appointment at Tom House in Los Angeles. Read a conversation between Rick Castro and Rick Owens in our Spring 2019 issue. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper.

Preview of Secret Gay Box Curated by John Wolf at the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles

John Wolf Fine Art presents Secret Gay Box with Tom of Finland Foundation. Wolf was raised in an Evangelical Christian home where Homosexuality was viewed as a sin and flaw, and consequently as a child he kept a secret box from his parents. The ability to have a private world, and to collect, is ultimately what led Wolf to art world. Secret Gay Box features over fifteen artists who have navigated their sexuality through artistic expression. Like Wolf’s childhood box, this space will be one where art hides in plain sight, even where people might not think to look. The space itself as well as the artworks in it embrace the creativity that it can take to effectively conceal oneself, but also the beauty that can occur in freedom from whatever ‘box’ one might have. All humans have their own “secret gay box”, either conscious or subconscious. This show, the artists represented, and the act of creating a personal art collection are a way to simultaneously fill the box or open it for those around you. Secret Gay Box will be on view until November 17, 2018 at the Tom Of Finland Foundation, 1421 Laveta Terrace, Los Angeles, CA 90026. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

A Peek Inside The New "Tom House: Tom of Finland in Los Angeles" Book

Tom House: Tom of Finland in Los Angeles, from the Rizzoli imprint, is a delicious peek inside the legendary former residence of Finnish erotic illustrator and painter of all your gay fantasies, Touko Laaksonen. The home, on a quiet suburban street in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, is where Laaksonen, most famously known as Tom of Finland, lived and worked during the last ten years of his life. The men and muses he lived with still live there to this day and maintain the home just as he left it, albeit with a lot more of his artwork on the walls. To the un-gay eye, this house may seem like a den of iniquity, but in reality it is a shrine to the late Tom of Finland and it is a testament to freedom of sexuality and desire. Straight or gay, Tom’s House is a must visit when you spend time in Los Angeles, and the book is an excellent way to visit if you can’t actually be there. All in all, the book is also one of the best testaments to the legacy of Tom of Finland.  Click here to purchase Tom House: Tom of Finland In Los Angeles.