“AllTogether” | Rob Clarke, Sal Salandra, Seth Bogart, Sheree Rose, Susanna Luoto and Viktoria Raykova

AllTogether features artists from the Tom of Finland Foundation collections.

ROB CLARKE (B. 1964, American)
Artist Rob Clarke pokes fun at masculine ideals and his own sexual obsessions in his art. His subjects include a menagerie of daddies, twinks, trolls, gym bunnies, adult babies, and dog slaves.  Clarke has exhibited in the U.S.A. and Canada since the early 1990s and published his work in porn magazines and anthologies of erotic artists. Clarke’s images pay homage to and parody Tom of Finland. Parallel to his art, Clarke is an illustrator and animator for children’s educational software.

SAL SALANDRA (B. 1945, American)
Sal Salandra is a self-taught artist with parents from Italy. After a long career dressing hair in New Jersey, NJ, his passion for his favorite pastime, needlepoint, has taken center stage. His large-scale, embroidered canvases—what he calls “thread paintings”— are now intricate and explicit tableaux of distinctive sexual scenarios. Salandra draws inspiration from his life experiences, religion, and sexual subcultures. Salandra lives and works in East Hampton, NY.

“Tom of Finland was a big influence on me as a young man. Now his influence is used to create my erotic thread paintings. I hope I can help young men accept their sexuality like Tom of Finland helped me accept mine.” – SS

SETH BOGART (B. 1980, American)
Seth Bogart is an artist and musician who has been a central figure in the queer and punk art scenes of the West Coast. His work spans a variety of media, including ceramics, painting, music, and clothing design. He is known for his solo career and bands Hunx and His Punx and Gravy Train!!!!. He also runs the streetwear line Wacky Wacko. Bogart co-curated with Jess Scott the group exhibition Heaven and Hell at Tom of Finland Foundation in 2020. Bogart lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

“Tom of Finland paved the way for perv artists like me to be able to paint and draw whatever we want – and have it be considered ‘art’ and not ‘pornography’.” – SB

SHEREE ROSE (B. 1941, American)
Sheree Rose is an American photographer and performance artist. Rose’s personal journey and transformation from the mid-thirties divorced Westwood housewife into an underground documentarian and participant as she chronicled BDSM partnerships, disability advocacy, and LGBTQ+ partnerships and identity, contextualize her multimedia work. Free love, radical feminism, and mortality contextualize her photography in addition to what was, and continues to be, spiritual to her: her camera, her performances, and her chosen family. In 2018, Rose received the Tom of Finland Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. Rose lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

“I first became aware of Durk Dehner in 1981, as a member of The Society of Janus. Years later, Durk was kind enough to allow our women’s group,’Dominatrixes Against Donald’, to meet at TOM House.” – SR

SUSANNA LUOTO (B. 1961, Finnish)
Susanna Luoto has a Masters of Arts in Journalism and works today as an independent agent in arts and communications for clients from the U.S.A. and Europe. She has been collaborating with Tom of Finland Foundation since 1990. Luoto is the author of Salaisuuksin suljettu – Kirjeiden Tom of Finland (Sealed with a Secret — Correspondence of Tom of Finland, published by Like, 2017), examining the extensive correspondence between the years 1940–1991 of the artist.

“I have recently interviewed Gay men about what they read from Tom’s art. His Gay erotica reached out much further than erotic. It built new proud selves by giving pride and building up self-assurance. It revolutionized lives. Thus, erotic art should never by, I believe, interpreted as solely erotic, but rather be comprehended in its many dimensions or interpretations.” – SL

VIKTORIA RAYKOVA (B. 1984, Bulgarian)
Viktoria Raykova is a photographer and cinematographer. The magic of existence and the burning desire to remain present for every moment generated her passion for adventure and focus on documentary work. She has completed documentaries for organizations such as the Los Angeles Homeless Housing Association, UNICEF, and Planned Parenthood. Raykova lives and works across the U.S.A., Europe, and Asia.

“I found myself observing the dimensions and aesthetics in Tom’s drawings, mathematically and meticulously attempting to understand how to best create a bridge from Tom’s drawings to photography. I was honored by the chance to use photography in an attempt to replicate such a meaningful body of work.” – VR

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: 25th June 2022

Categorised in: Art Offering, Events