Anonymous. Provocative. Erect.

L.A. is a city of abundance: desire, sensuality, money, drugs, fame, beauty, sex, palm trees… It is fun but also very very very dark. I get inspired a lot by the people who reside there and make it the wild place that it is today.

I started my art during the lockdown. A period that I compare a little bit to the Art Povera movement where artists like Pierro Manzoni, Agostino Bonalumi or Fontana created art with the most simplest materials post war. Similarly, I was locked in at home so I had to create art with essentials objects I could find. I am fascinated by the ideas of playing and combining these everyday objects to create a completely new aesthetic significance. I am on a continuous search for minimalist beauty and playful elegance combined with elements of provocation in the final composition.

Yes, I deploy self-referential humor that confronts contemporary taboos and interrogates normative structures, luxuriating in the grey matter among provocation, pleasure, beauty, and aesthetics. My most recent work is designed to stroke the subconscious and celebrates (or challenges) the meaning of desire in an era where sexual freedom and identity are increasingly under attack abroad. Coming from America, where I live today, I see the current show as a chance to leverage my provocative art as a vital tool and shine a spotlight on the realities of LGBTQ+ sexuality. One doesn’t need to read between the lines with today’s daily dose of horrendous headlines: “Hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills have already been introduced this year” (via NPR); “2022 is already a record year for state bills seeking to curtail LGBTQ rights, ACLU data shows” (via CNN); “10 anti-LGBTQ laws just went into effect. They all target schools.” (via Washington Post); “UN expert warns LGBT rights being eroded in US, urges stronger protections” (via Jurist). Not to mention the rapidly declining civil liberties like race, religion, gender identity, and reproductive rights. The lists and headlines go on, but so does the artmaking.

I like this quote of Marcel Duchamp: ‘’ I do art for the minds, not for the eyes’’. Personally I can’t stand decorative art, I think that’s the job of IG and Pinterest. When it comes to curating art I am looking for a powerful reaction, emotion or memory. My show in Berlin, RUB IT! is spurred by the imperative that all art is protest act. I definitely hope it takes part of the public debate rather than just a form of decoration. Rub the statue, rub your lovers, and rub it in their faces. In this new apparatus, the works transcend the designated gallery space and act as a call to arms.

I am obsessed with the external juxtaposition of sexuality and censorship. My art actually reflects on the power of Social Media, where everything is extremely sexualized and censored at the same time. Is an erect penis pornographic or beautiful, vulgar or elegant? Does the veil (of censorship) make it more interesting, desirable or acceptable? In a subtle game between revealing and hiding, I hope to force the beholders to see what is merely alluded in the piece and to deal with their emotions.

I don’t think my personal identity or name is relevant to the art. I want the pieces to be viewed for what they are and not for who made them. The world is already so complex and overwhelming, I rather have the pieces speak for themselves.

I think fashion and art are incredibly related. Art inspires fashion and vice versa. The white is the purest color, simple, clean,  minimal and even innocent – well innocent maybe not in this case. I most use white to not take too much space and add a calming and fresh look to the shows.

It was a crazy adventure, I will always remember my first show. The funniest part of the entire experience I have to say was attending my opening without anyone knowing I was the artist behind the pieces. Looking and hearing people experiencing and commenting on the pieces without them knowing I was behind, was very funny but also so powerful, interesting and intense. A beautiful surprise I didn’t expect and that I will always cherish. I am hoping to keep a low profile for this show as well.

RUB IT arrives on the heels of the city’s centennial “Roaring 20s” anniversary when Weimar Era-decadence launched not only Berlin’s iconic club and cabaret scene but also the modern LGBTQ+ emancipation movement. It’s this history of inherited permissiveness that makes Berlin one of the last remaining vestiges of sexual liberty. I should know. My own sexual awakening began in Berlin nearly a decade ago as a wide-eyed postgrad. It was the city of firsts. Fitting, given that Berlin is home to the world’s first gay rights activist, first gay magazine, and first institute for sexual research. The city represents an all-important reminder that art and sex will always be linked, so long as the two remain free of suppression and censorship.

Many Art Povera artists and the Zero Group movement in terms of aesthetic: Pierro Manzoni, Fontona, Buri or Turri Simeti. Also, bold artists like Marcel Dushamp, Urs fisher, Maurizio Cattelan.

RUB IT stands for unalloyed joy and freedom in the face of widespread discrimination and violence against sexual freedoms. But even Berlin has its upper limits, and the party has to end sometime. What you do with that memory and energy is where my Berlin collection exists: in a circle-jerk of elegance and hardcore, minimalism and intensity, tension and release.

The focus has remained the same. This time however I had to turn it up a notch since it is hard to shock and seduce a city like Berlin that has seen it all.

The throbbing chrome sculpture that lends its name to the title of the exhibit (RUB IT). Statue rubbing has a long, curious history in the art world and public imagination. I want this show to be an homage to the city of Berlin and every city has its good luck statue. This one is my version of it. When you see it don’t forget to rub!

I have admired a lot of curators and collectors over the years. You have the obvious big names but one I personally adore is Ronnie Sasson. Over a lifetime spent in London, New York, Los Angeles and points in between, collector Ronnie Sassoon has put together an unparalleled grouping of radical artworks, design objects and houses that elucidate her definition of “selection”: important works by Group Zero and Arte Povera artists such as Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Alighiero Boetti; midcentury designers such as Carlo Scarpa, Frederick Kiesler, Jean Prouvé and Gae Aulenti; and many more. At the center of the collection are three important houses that hold the collection: the Levit House by Richard Neutra in Los Angeles, the Stillman II House by Marcel Breuer in Connecticut and the iconic Dean/Ceglic Loft in SoHo, New York. Just iconic.

Maybe an after party in the local berlin bathhouses followed by a curry worst at 4am? Let’s see, I might be in bed by midnight completed passed out…

I would love to do a show in New York and Paris. Two cities I adore and that inspire me a lot. I hate to work alone though, hate it. So I am talking to several different entities to perhaps collaborate together, it’s so much more fun! Stay tuned!