DICKS
ELIZABETH BERDANN
CYNTHIA PLASTER CASTER
JESSE CHAPMAN
AURA ROSENBERG
MIRA SCHOR
AUREL SCHMIDT
BETTY TOMPKINS
NICOLE WITTENBERG
ELIZABETH BERDANN
CYNTHIA PLASTER CASTER
JESSE CHAPMAN
AURA ROSENBERG
MIRA SCHOR
AUREL SCHMIDT
BETTY TOMPKINS
NICOLE WITTENBERG
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As a young artist in the late 1980s, I started to think about the body and its history as a visual subject. Metaphorically dissecting and isolating each feature or element allowed me the freedom to explore the social and cultural associations engendered by the body. Good, Better, Best, 1988, was the first of these "disembodied" paintings. Humor, a clinical presentation, labeling and objectifying the male image provoked a range of strong reactions from viewers. - Elizabeth Berdann
A little Elmer's glue and we had our plaster cast - a little on the Venus de Milo side but it's a real beauty. Jimi is of the Jimi Hendrix Experience...lead guitarist...American. - Cynthia Plaster Caster
A wonderful thing about dicks is that they are so nearly vaginas morphologically, so they exemplify a big range in functionality and appearance coming out of a minor variation. That kind of plasticity can suggest that there are interesting latent possibilities all over the place in our world waiting for us to find them. - Jesse Chapman
The Dialectical Porn Rock series began as a joke and a frustrated response to the impossibility of escaping the fetish. Instead I embraced fetishism, in the process producing "readymade" figurative sculptures. I wonder about the age-old desire to turn stone to flesh. My new rocks return images of statues to stone. But, so many of them have their penises broken off. Could this be "the detachable penis," that the mother once possessed and precedes the Phallus? - Aura Rosenberg
The penis has usually been veiled, not-to-be-seen so as to better protect the power of the phantom phallus. Meanwhile, in museums, the nude female body remains the most prevalent image. In my work, I consider the penis in relation to patriarchal power, rather than figurationally in relation to sex or porn. I painted the penis in conjunction with the ear. In Christian iconography, the ear was the site of the impregnation of the Virgin Mary: the word of God had penetrated her ear - language as sperm. I substituted the punctuation mark, an emblem of language, for the female body, precisely where the history of Western philosophy had located the darkness of unreason. - Mira Schor
A little girl (or boy) doodling in her notebook dreaming of a big beautiful cock, hearts, stars, bows and an infinity of possibilities. A faceless, nameless, fearless perfection; forever hard, infinite, ultimate & perfect desire....Imagine reversing the roles? An exhibition of all men showing nothing but faceless pussy? Oh yeah, that's just history. Don't worry I ain't mad. I'm just gonna love you without your permission. Love you so much, you explode into a billion white stars, assimilating absolutely, back into my universe, right where you came from before anybody told you anything. Welcome home baby. - Aurel Schmidt
In a recent interview, John Cheim said a collector had once told him that the two things most difficult to sell were green paintings and paintings with penises. I thought this was funny and have now done three green dicks. As opposed to previous dicks I have drawn or painted, these are totally disembodied. I never considered doing them any other way. - Betty Tompkins
Paint it like you lick it
Lick it like you paint it
-Nicole Wittenberg
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The 10 Best Art Shows of 2016
Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine, December 7, 2016 -
“D I C K S” At Fortnight Institute
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Lets Talk About Dicks
Jillian Steinhauer, Hyperallergic, November 15, 2016 -
“Dicks” Group Exhibition
Paige Silveria, Purple, November 3, 2016 -
Betty Tompkins’s ‘Green Dicks’ Is No Limp Attempt at Smushing the Patriarchy
Nicole Disser, Bedford + Bowery, November 1, 2016 -
12 Must-See Art Shows Opening This Week
Gary Pini, Paper, October 26, 2016 -
This Week’s Must See Events: A Week of Historicization
Paddy Johnson, Art City, October 24, 2016