Stompers, 1978
Photograph on paper
Unframed: 14″ (35.56 cm) x 11″ (27.94 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

A.J. EPSTEIN (American, b. 1949)
A photographer and artist. Since the late-1960s, he photographed LGBTQ communities and events. He has also worked as an art director and graphic designer for numerous publications. He was part of the show at Stompers in 1978 with Tom of Finland and Etienne and became Tom’s “favorite young gay artist”. He is an ToFF Honorary Board Member.

Club 69 – X-Rated, 2000
Photograph on paper
Framed: 24.25″ (61.60 cm) x 20.25” (51.50 cm) x 1″ (2.6 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

AARON COBBETT (American, b. 1972)
Starting in the late 1980s, Cobbett worked as a window dresser by day and documented the thriving East Village drag scene by night. Moving freely between textiles, video, installation and photography, his work is characterized by high craft, deadpan wit and harsh glamor. He lives and works in Brooklyn.

Kent in Hiding. NY, 1990
Gelatin silver print on paper
Unframed: 11″ (27.94 cm) x 14″ (35.56 cm)
Framed: 21″ (53.34 cm) x 17″ (43.18 cm) x 0.63″ (1.60 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

ARTHUR TRESS (American, b. 1940)
As a gay man he used this skill and focused it on gay desire and appreciation for men. Tress captured with his shutter dicks and desire and the decadence of the gay male body. His photography paved the way for homoerotic photographers. His first one-man show was at the Robert Samuel Gallery in the West Village. In 2017, he received the ToFF Lifetime Achievement Award.

Chain Gang, 1989
Cut and pasted paper on paper
Framed: 17.5″ (44.5 cm) x 15.5″ (39.4 cm) x 0.75″ (2 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

BONE BOYZ (American, b. 1959)
From Brooklyn, Kenny Graziano was at the top of his class at Lafayette High School and into music and musical theater. Later he studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology. “My life has been a kaleidoscope – art, photography, design – all and everything that is a visual orgy.”

Poster for the New St. Marks Baths, NYC c. 1980
Mounted offset lithograph poster on paper
Unframed: 40″ (101.6 cm) x 26.5″ (67.31 cm) x 0.19″ (0.48 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Collection

BORIS VALLEJO (Peruvian-American, b. 1941)
Known worldwide for his fantasy, science-fiction, and erotic paintings. The St. Marks Baths opened in NYC’s East Village in 1913. Refurbished and rechristened the New St. Marks Baths in 1979, it closed its doors in 1985 as a result of the New York City Department of Health’s crackdown on bathhouses with the advent of AIDS.

Untitled, 2002
Mat-board
Framed: 21.25″ (54 cm) x 17.13″ (43.47 cm) x 1.5″ (3.9 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

BRIAN CREDE (American, b. 1952)
Originally from New York. During his academic years, Crede explored graphic design, enameling, glassblowing, airbrushing, and photography. His work shows his fascination for paper and three-dimensional art. He founded his own graphic design studio in 1978. He was a ToF Art Festival participant.

Untitled (Durk Dehner), 1976
Photograph on paper
Unframed: 14″ (35.56 cm) x 11″ (27.94 cm)
Framed: 20.13″ (51.13 cm) x 16.13″ (40.97 cm) x 1″ (2.54 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

BRUCE WEBER (American, b. 1946)
He began taking headshots after transferring to NYU in 1966 and subsequently attained international acclaim for his fashion photography. He has produced notable campaigns for major designers; his work has been extensively featured in GQ, Vogue, and Interview. Weber currently lives in NYC and Miami.

After Dark: The National Magazine of Entertainment. Volume 5, issue 12. (Rod McKuen on cover), 1973
Periodical
Unframed: 14″ (35.56 cm) x 8.5″ (21.59 cm) x 0.19″ (0.48 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Library

AFTER DARK
The magazine was based in New York City, published by Danad Publishing Company, Inc, and founded in 1968 by its first editor, William Como. It covered theater, cinema, ballet, performance art, and various artists. Although not described as a “gay magazine”, it provided a level of homoeroticism by regularly using images of partially nude men. 

• ROD MCKUEN, shown on this cover, was the recipient of the 2006 Tom of Finland Foundation Cultural Icon award. One of the best-selling poets in the US during the late 1960s. He appeared regularly at New York’s Carnegie Hall. McKuen never publicly identified with a particular sexual orientation; however he was active in the LGBT rights movement, and was a member of the Mattachine Society, one of the nation’s earliest LGBT advocacy organizations.

Untitled (Commission for Honcho cover), 1996
Unique vintage silver bromide fiber print on paper
Unframed: 22.38″ (57 cm) x 18.13″ (46.1 cm) x 1″ (2.6 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

DANIEL PERRY (American, b. 1958)
His photographs have been exhibited in more than thirty five invitational and solo gallery shows. Perry obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography. In pursuit of his art, he migrated to New York. From the fashion, film and music industries, he has photographed numerous accomplished personalities and has contributed to major magazines. He was a ToF Art Festival participant.

Butch, Issue 1, 1965
Periodical
Unframed: 8″ (20.32 cm) x 5″ (12.7 cm) x 0.19” (0.48 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Library

BUTCH
The magazine was founded by Lloyd Spinar and Conrad Germain in 1965. Two years later their publishing company, Directory Services, Inc., had become the largest gay-owned, gay-oriented business in the world. Butch featured full-frontal nudes of men, catered explicitly to a gay audience, and in a landmark legal battle in 1967 was found not guilty for publishing obscene imagery.

Fire Eaters, 1977
Print on paper
Unframed: 14″ (35.56 cm) x 11″ (27.94 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

DOMINO (American, b. 1920 d. 1990)
Under his birth name, Donald Merrick, he spent years teaching about the visual arts at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. Privately, he was hard at work dreaming up his erotic fantasies. It was not until after his divorce from his wife that the artist exposed Domino to the rest of the world. He sought to create working men as objects of desire. Domino’s debut exhibition was mounted at Stompers in 1978, Domino: Original Drawings and Prints.

Love & Lust (Image – Man Lust, New York City), 2004
Book (Open to image of Durk Dehner and Michael Mitchell kissing)
Unframed: 9.38″ (23.83 cm) x 6.75″ (17.15 cm) x 0.81″ (2.06 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Library

DONNA FERRATO (American, b. 1949)
An acclaimed photojournalist, her work has appeared in exhibitions and publications. In 1979, Ferrato moved to New York City, where she began photographing in sex clubs and nightclubs, documenting the nightlife culture of that era. Her book, Love and Lust, is a provocative look at human intimacy.

Untitled, 1978
Graphite on paper
Framed: 25″ (63.5 cm) x 20.88″ (53.2 cm) x 1.25″ (3.18 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

ETIENNE (American, b. 1933 d. 1991)
Domingo Francisco Juan Esteban “Dom” Orejudos, Secundo known by the artist names Etienne and Stephen, was an openly gay artist. He also was a ballet dancer and choreographer. He is best known for his ground-breaking masculine gay male erotica beginning in the 1950s.

Adventures in Capitalism, 2023
Colored pencil on paper
Unframed: 19” (48.26 cm) x 20” (50.8 cm)

GIO BLACK PETER (Guatemalan, b. 1979)
A multimedia artist and performer based in New York City. Peter’s paintings include scenes of sex, violence, nature and art-world pretense; his work often depicts the decadent lifestyle of young New York City artists and their social circle. He is Summer 2019 Artist-in-Residence and ToF Art Festival participant.

Leather!, 1965
Periodical
Unframed: 8.75″ (22.23 cm) x 5.25″ (13.34 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Library

GUILD BOOK SERVICE
A mail-order business founded by H. Lynn Womack in 1964 with the goal of highlighting “gay titles” for a “gay reading public.” Womack extensively published physique magazines, literature, and erotic fiction under various imprints, including Guild Press and the Grecian Guild. He fought obscenity charges throughout his career. 

Saturn III, 2022 
Acrylic, flashe, gouache on canvas 
Unframed: 54” (137.16 cm) x 48” (121.92 cm) x 1” (2.54 cm)

HEATHER BENJAMIN (American, b. 1989)
Born, lives and works in New York. Benjamin received her BFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. She began her career by self-publishing zines and prints of her drawings, and now primarily makes drawings and paintings on paper and canvas. She took part in the 2019 ToFF Heaven and Hell and 2019 ToFF Hard Sweat exhibitions. 

The Darling Angel Twins, 2001
Iris print on paper
Framed: 29″ (73.66 cm) x 10.25″ (26.04 cm) x 1.5″ (3.81 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

JOHN JOHN JESSE (American, b. 1950)
Jesse came up in the Lower East Side punk scene, co-founding the band Nausea and producing flyers and album art for bands. In the ensuing years he developed a distinctive style of painting shot through with grit, fantasy, and eroticism. His work has been exhibited with Opera Gallery NYC, Art @ Large, and Museum of Sex. He was a ToFF Erotic Gallery by Mail artist.

Pier Painting (after Piero), 1984
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 16” (40.64 cm) x 12” (30.48 cm)

JONATHAN WEINBERG (American, b. 1957)
A painter, art historian and curator. He is the author of several books including Pier Groups: Art and Sex Along the New York Waterfront and Ambition and Love in American Art. He was the lead curator of the groundbreaking 2019 touring exhibition, Art After Stonewall, 1969-89.

Justice Howard: Various works 
Prints in binder
Unframed: 11.75″ (29.85 cm) x 10.38″ (26.37 cm) x 2.13″ (5.41c m)
Tom of Finland Foundation Collection

JUSTICE HOWARD (American, b. 1950)
The photographer began her career in front of the camera as a model before she ventured behind the lens. She’s garnered nationwide acclaim for her starkly erotic style of capturing the female form on film. Her work has been featured in art galleries around the country including the Neikrug Gallery in Manhattan.

Thugs, 2003
Markers on paper
Unframed: 14″ (35.6cm) x 14″ (35.6cm)
Framed: 18.5″ (47cm) x 18.5″ (47cm) x 2.5″ (6.4cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

MICHAEL KIRWAN (American, b. 1953 d. 2018)
Born in New York, his works have been published in over 650 magazines, exhibited around the world, and collected by discerning buyers. Rather than glorify sex or glamorize people, Michael’s intent was to draw arousing interactions enjoyed by the everyday, regular people he would encounter. In 2004, he was inducted in the ToFF Artist Hall of Fame.

Posing Pumped and Pissed (From “Erotic Alphabet Cards” series), 2004
Inkjet print on paper
Unframed: 5.5″ (14cm) x 4.125″ (10.5cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

MICHAEL MITCHELL (American, b. 1952)
The artist has drawn all his life and has been doing figure drawing since high school. He has worked as a storyboard illustrator for ad agencies in New York City. He currently is doing drawings and paintings of the male figure and his work has appeared in Hardjobs magazine.

Untitled (George Quaintance on stage), c. 1925
Photoprint on paper
Unframed: 11″ (27.94 cm) x 8.5″ (21.59 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Collection

NASIB
A photography studio that specialized in photos of dancers and performers in NYC in the 1920s.

• GEORGE QUAINTANCE (American,  b. 1902 d. 1957)
  Right from the cover of the first issue of the first muscle magazine, Physique Pictorial, in 1950, Quaintance was the advanced guard of gay erotic art in the ’50s. At the age of 18, he studied at the Art Students League in New York City, where, as well as painting and drawing, he studied dance.

Untitled, 1989
Photograph on paper
Framed: 20.25″ (51.44 cm) x 16.25″ (41.28 cm) x 1.25″ (3.18 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

NEIL POLEN (American, b. 1945 d. 1997)
A longtime resident of the Hotel Chelsea. He was a photographer of BDSM scenes and its practitioners. His street photography is archived in the Fales Library Downtown Collection. His XXX-rated material was archived with Sur Rodney, Polen’s associate and sometimes collaborator.

Blue Dot, 1997
Laser transfer with acrylic on canvas
Unframed: 32″ (81.3 cm) x 30″ (76.2 cm) x 0.75″ (1.91 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

PET SILVIA (American, b. 1953 d. 2022)
Silvia started out in the early 1970s as an Avant Garde performer working in cabaret venues. By the late ’70s, he was drawing underground cartoons as part of the Newave Movement. He used gender issues as the basis of much of his art. Silvia was the founder of Art @ Large Gallery in New York City. He was a ToF Art Festival participant.

QQ MAGAZINE “For Gay Guys”, Volume 4, issue 5 (Tom of Finland – Hang Up), 1972
Periodical on paper
Unframed: 11″ (27.94 cm) x 8.5″ (21.59 cm) x 0.19″ (0.48 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Library

QQ PUBLISHING CO., INC.
A national, bimonthly, lifestyle magazine, 1969 – c. 1982, from Queen’s Quarterly publishers in New York City. It started as Queens Quarterly and used the motto: “For Gay guys who have no hangups”. Its editor was Frank Keating. 

Leather Bar (That One Next), 1978
Ink on paper
Unframed: 13.5″ (34.3 cm) x 17.13″ (43.5 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

REX (American, b. 1947)
He began producing homoerotica in the 1960s and became one of the leading figures visualizing the fetish subculture of NYC. The raw sexual energy of REX’s early drawings resonated with a leather scene that was emerging in Greenwich Village, Chelsea and the meatpacking district. In 2017, he was inducted into the ToFF Artist Hall of Fame.

Quentin Crisp, New York, 1995
Photograph on paper
Unframed: 40″ (101.6c m) x 26″ (66.1 cm)
Framed: 42.75″ (108.6 cm) x 30.75″ (78.2 cm) x 1.38″ (3.7 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

RINALDO HOPF (German, b. 1955)
He lives as an artist, curator, and editor between Berlin, Freiburg, and Tuscany. Since 2005 he has been the co-editor of the annual anthology My Gay Eye. His work has been exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, Madrid and Berlin. He was a 2020 ToFF Artist-in-Residence.

• QUENTIN CRISP (Briton, b. 1908  d. 1999)
  A gay icon not without occasional controversy. He was an artist’s model and went on to become a theater-filling humorist. His first stay in NYC was in the Hotel Chelsea and he moved to the City permanently and took a small apartment in the East Village. He celebrated his 90th birthday performing his one-man show at The Intar Theatre on 42nd Street.

Untitled, c. 2004
Giclee print on paper
Unframed: 10.5″ (26.7 cm) x 8.5″ (21.6 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

ROB CLARKE (American, b. 1964)
As a day job in New York, Clarke works as illustrator and animator for educational software. In his artwork, he pokes fun at masculine ideals and his own sexual obsessions. He has exhibited work in the US and Canada since the early 1990s and has had work published in porn magazines and anthologies of erotic artists. He was a ToF Art Festival participant.

Untitled, 1997
Photograph on paper
Unframed: 11″ (28 cm) x 14″ (35.6 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

Leather Hell, 2021
Mixed threads on canvas
Framed: 22.5” (57.15 cm) x 22.5” (57.15 cm)

SAL SALANDRA (Italian-American, b. 1945)
A self taught artist who creates primarily homoerotic work. Salandra studied to become a priest, however because of his severe dyslexia, he gave this up and instead became a hairdresser. He sketches and creates paintings, sewing with threads as the paint. In 1993, he relocated to East Hampton from the West Village.

Slow kissing, 2019
Pencil on paper 

SILVIA PRADA (Spanish, b. 1969)
A New York based artist whose figurative handmade drawings celebrate gay iconography and popular culture. Prada started her career collaborating with some of the most influential international magazines, Dazed & Confused, Interview and The Face. Her works have been showcased in museums, art fairs and galleries worldwide.

Luis & Rahm, Riis Beach, 2019 
Digital print on sarga, Edition of 5 
Unframed: 26″ (66.04 cm) x 40″ (101.6cm)

SLAVA MOGUTIN (Russian-American, b. 1974)
Born in Siberia, Mogutin is a New York-based multimedia artist and author exiled from Russia for his outspoken queer writing and activism. He became the first to be granted political asylum in the US on the grounds of homophobic persecution. He’s the winner of Andrei Bely Prize for poetry and the Tom of Finland Foundation Achievement Award.

Dada 004, 1994
Photograph

STANLEY STELLAR (American, b. 1945)
A Brooklyn native, Stellar was educated at Parsons School of Design where he focused on graphic design and photography. His photography has been exhibited in galleries in the U.S. and Europe, presented and discussed in over a dozen anthologies, and featured on the covers of 26 international magazines. He was a ToF Art Festival participant.

Domino Stompers Set Two, 1979
Print portfolio on paper
Unframed: 14.5″ (36.83 cm) x 11.5″ (29.21 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

STOMPERS
In the front, it was a boot store, and in the back, an art gallery. Owned by Louis Weingarden in Greenwich Village, it was a key player in legitimizing gay male art and promoting images of the leather community. It was frequented by talented Manhattan personalities.

• LOUIS WEINGARDEN
  “Louie” was the owner of Stompers. He was an accomplished pianist and award-winning composer who organized SMASH (Society to Make America Safe for Homosexuals). Weingarden died of AIDS in Manhattan in 1989. 

S.T.H. (Straight to Hell): The Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts, Issue 52, 1983
Periodical
Unframed: 8.38″ (21.29 cm) x 5.38″ (13.67 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Library

STRAIGHT TO HELL
In the early 1970s, Boyd McDonald, while living in the Upper West Side, founded his zine, Straight to Hell (S.T.H.). It became an influential publication in New York City’s arts and culture scene and included real life stories submitted by anonymous contributors. Billy Miller became editor of S.T.H. in 1989.

Untitled (Prince Pretty), 1975
Graphite and markers on vellum
Framed: 22.25″ (56.52 cm) x 20″ (50.8 cm) x 1″ (2.6 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

SULTAN (Briton, b. 1923 d. 2003)
Born John Darcy Noble. He was an early activist in the early gay rights movement in New York in the ’60s. Noble assisted Robert Clement in founding the first church to outreach to the gay and lesbian communities in New York. He is known for pioneering work as a Curator of dolls and toys at the Museum of the City of New York. The library at TOM House, Sultan’s Salon, is named after the artist.

R Mutt, 2020
Oil on board
Unframed: 5″ (12.7 cm) x 3.25″ (8.3 cm) x 0.13″ (0.5 cm)
Framed: 8.75″ (22.3 cm) x 5.25″ (13.4 cm) x 1″ (2.6 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

SUZANNE SHIFFLETT (American, b. 1965)
An academically trained painter and a tattoo artist, her work depicts gender non-conformity and aims to represent experience, people, communities that are all but invisible in our society. Shifflett seeks to express that which has little to no language, that is ignored in society, in law, in our community and in our art. In 2021, she received the ToFF Lifetime Achievement Award.

Untitled (Durk Dehner), 1976
Photograph on paper
Unframed: 10″ (25.4 cm) x 8″ (20.32 cm)
Framed: 15.38″ (39.07 cm) x 12.38″ (31.45 cm) x 0.75″ (2 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

TARGET STUDIOS (American)
Photographer and filmmaker Lou Thomas founded Target Studios in the early 1970s. His aesthetic tended toward the mustachioed leather daddy model that pervaded gay male culture throughout the ’70s. He was dedicated to dramatizing masculine-identified men.

Untitled (From Kake vol. 07 – Tea Room Odyssey), 1970
Pen & ink on paper
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

TOM OF FINLAND (Finnish, b. 1920 d.1991)
Tom of Finland (born Touko Laaksonen) is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most influential artists for his groundbreaking representation of the male figure. Tom gave form to an imaginative universe that helped fuel real-world liberation movements and enabled gay men to access their strength in new ways. 

Untitled, c. 1975
Acrylic on canvas
Unframed: 24″ (61 cm) x 30″ (76.2 cm) x 0.75″ (1.91 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

TONY CHARMOLI (American, b. 1921 d. 2020)
Tony Charmoli was a dancer, director, and three-time Emmy Award-winning choreographer. He worked extensively on Broadway and in television. Charmoli painted throughout his life and his work has been collected by many. When he was 17, Charmoli met Wilford Saunders and he remained his life partner until his death in 1999.

Untitled (Model: Ed Fury), c. 1960
Photograph on paper
Unframed: 8″ (20.32 cm) x 10″ (25.4 cm)
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection

VULCAN STUDIOS (Cuban, b. 1921 d. 2017)
Anthony Guyther worked as a photographer and became successful under the name Vulcan. He came to the United States at the age of three. After being discharged from the Army, he returned to New York City working in the layout and advertising departments of publishers.

• ED FURY (American, b. 1928 d. 2023)
  Born in Long Island, New York, Fury was a bodybuilder, actor, and model. He worked as a physique model for photographers including Bob Mizer (AMG) and Bruce Bellas. He is best known for starring in a number of “sword-and-sandal” films in the 1950s and ’60s.