The Tom of Finland Art & Culture Festival is coming to Berlin!

TOM OF FINLAND Untitled, 1972

For 28 years, the Tom of Finland Art & Culture Festival has been presenting Queer erotic art from all over the world. From 12th-14th May, the Festival will take place for the first time in Berlin under the motto GlobalSexual.

The Festival, which brings together artists, galleries and supporters from around the world, has been organized by Tom of Finland Foundation from Los Angeles for 28 years to celebrate the great Tom of Finland and his enduring inspiration to celebrate artists. The venue in Berlin was hosted by the Queer studio community prideART.

In 1984, Tom of Finland and Durk Dehner established Tom of Finland Foundation – initially to safeguard Tom’s ever-growing work. However, the non-profit association soon devoted itself to promoting erotic art in general. Their annual Festival, which is now in its 28th year and is now taking place in Berlin for the first time, is a platform for the Queer, erotic art scene – to network, to present and sell works.

From Gay underground to world star

In 1957 the erotic drawings of a so-called Tom of Finland were published for the first time. The sex-positive art was soon to become style-defining aesthetic for the Gay scene. Muscled and well-endowed, his hyper-masculine guys inspired the leather and fetish scene of the 1970s and 1980s in particular. The radiance of his sex-positive art did not fade after his death in 1991, but continued to gain strength. “Thanks to our work in recent years, Tom of Finland is now known to the general public and even appears as a quiz question on television,” says the creative director of Tom of Finland Foundation Richard Villani. “As my 80-year-old mother said about him the other day, ‘Of course I know him! His art is now shown in important museums and represented by renowned galleries, in Berlin, for example, by Galerie Judin.’

SEE THE COMPLETE ARTICLE BY CARSTEN BAUHAUS

Published: 9th May 2023

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