Digitally Kinky

Local art connoisseurs already know about the World Erotic Art Museum, cherubically grandmotherly Naomi Wilzig’s wild display of tastefully depicted phalluses and pudendas. The museum, located smack-dab in the middle of bustling Miami Beach, has a truly spectacular display of genitals throughout history. Hand-carved Chinese penises and voluptuous African nude figures give viewers an idea of age-old turn-ons. For a sticky, salty taste of the present, check out the museum’s latest exhibition, Laurence Gartel’s “Exotic/Erotic/Electronic.”

Gartel’s reputation as a technologically turned-on visionary began in the Seventies, and for the past 17 years he’s been sponsored by Absolut Vodka – his Absolut Gartel series has been published in millions of magazines all over the world. Although he isn’t fetishizing liquor bottles, he’s creating fabulist erotic images, some freshly made for tonight’s show. Wilzig is allowing Gartel to sample and reinterpret original paintings and memorabilia as source works, creating his own vision from the objects she has so avidly collected. The exhibition will take place tonight from 6 to 9 at WEAM.
Mon., Dec. 3, 6-9 p.m., 2007