Erotica Show at Pigtown’s Gallery 788
Newcomer art space Gallery 788 opened its second annual Erotica Show last week, featuring Raven draft beers as part of Baltimore Beer Week. At the height of the evening the crowd filled the gallery, some dressed in fetish gear and body paint. The walls of the tiny Pigtown spot were dressed with works including huge spread-eagle closeups and a collection of small photos of naked men, their erect penises captioned in bold black fonts with phrases like “A new sucker is born every day.”
Many of Baltimore painter Cameron Shojaei’s works sold at the opening, and with good reason. His pretty pink-toned paintings of naked women captured the beauty of female sensuality with a quiet subtlety, and would be at home even in a conservative art lover’s collection. They were a stark contrast to Zachary Morehouse’s “American Apparently,” a fun, edgy collection of photographs parodying the overt sexuality of American Apparel’s ads. Morehouse used models with varying body types, tattoos, piercings, and hairstyles to mock the clothing line’s tendency to use skinny, blank-slate models; also unlike those in the company’s ads, the models seemed to be enjoying themselves and their bodies.
Bel Air photographer Graham Snodgrass, who usually focuses on light painting, nature photography, and portraiture, ventured into the erotic for the first time specifically for this show. His tasteful portraits of women toyed with light in the same way his models toyed with the edges of their clothing. The result are simply lovely photographs.
The Erotica Show runs through Oct. 30 at 788 Washington Blvd. The gallery is open Thursdays and Fridays 5–9 p.m., Saturdays noon-8 p.m., and Sundays noon-6 p.m.
