“AllTogether” | Michel Laguerre, Miguel Angel Reyes, Mike Kuchar, Minoru and Mr Gruts

AllTogether features artists from the Tom of Finland Foundation collections.

MICHEL LAGUERRE (B. 1953, French)
Michel Laguerre is a painter whose works got first recognized, rewarded, and published in the 1980s. He continues his career with embroidery and collage works, appropriating Tom of Finland’s characters from the 1990s in his art.

MIGUEL ANGEL REYES (B. 1964, Mexican-American)
Miguel Angel Reyes is a portrait and figurative painter, muralist, printmaker, illustrator, and professor of art. Reyes is an instructor of model drawing in the Fashion Department of the Otis College of Art and the coordinator of Drawing Sessions at Tom of Finland Foundation. In 2009, he received a Tom of Finland Special Recognition Award.

“I love the Foundation’s mission statement – to protect, preserve and promote the work of erotic artists. Some of my work fits into the erotica category, and I’m glad to have had a place to show my work during the Foundation’s annual Art and Culture Festival and at various other TOM events throughout the city and the years. The Foundation itself has the best artistic vibe, encouraging new talent to feature their work. The Foundation residents do an excellent job at being open to keeping with the times as well as preserving the past.” – MAR

MIKE KUCHAR (B. 1942, American)
Mike Kuchar is an underground filmmaker, actor, and artist. In 1993, he was the recipient of the United States Artist award and, in 2017, received the Guggenheim Fellowship. With his twin brother George, Kuchar became an iconic figure in the New York underground film scene in the 1960s with their no-budget 8mm films that sent up Hollywood epics, romances, and sci-fi B-movies, such as Sins of the Fleshapoids and The Craven Sluck. Kuchar lives and works in San Francisco, CA.

MINORU (B. 1948, Japanese)
Minoru attended Asia University in Tokyo. He had his first show in the U.S.A. at the 2003 Tom of Finland Art & Culture Festival in Los Angeles, CA, where he sold his first signed original work and other various prints. In 2003, he entered the Tom of Finland Emerging Artist Competition, and has regularly attended Foundation’s Drawing Sessions, and shown at numerous Tom of Finland Art & Culture Festivals both in Los Angeles and New York. After his partner died, in Japanese tradition, Minoru renounced drawing. Minoru lives in Los Angeles, CA.

MR GRUTS (B. 1983, New Zealander)
Figurative artist Mr Gruts first forayed into a career in animation and later genre painting consisting of fantasy, science fiction, and horror before developing a career in erotic art. Channeling Tom of Finland, Mr Gruts realized that the social good could be attained by showing men in acts of affection instead of acts of destruction. The scenes often feature thickly proportioned men in working-class professions or activities. In 2020, Mr Gruts won the Tom of Finland Emerging Artist Contest Grand Prize. Mr Gruts lives and works in New Zealand.

“Even though the Foundation was established in 1984, it feels like an artifact from the future. The LGBTQIA+ community has gone micro steps towards its liberation, and the Foundation’s mission has been able to meticulously encapsulate the joy of sexuality through art. Mainstream society is inching towards this acceptance.” – MG

Discover more AllTogether artists

The exhibition tells the individual stories of the artists. At the same time, the exhibition locates parallels, interactions, and influences between Tom of Finland Foundation, Tom’s aesthetic impact, and the community of artists that have formed throughout the years around them…View

Published: 23rd June 2022

Categorised in: Art Offering, Events