The Art of Michela Colette: Cute Art Brut Meets Bullshit Frank

Michela Colette is a young artist and Rhode Island School of Art and Design (Riz-dee for short and Sheppard Fairey's alma mater) graduate who regularly self-publishes her own uniquely themed comics and posters for venues like the Cake Shop in NYC.

She gave the term sex act a whole new meaning: The Art of Alejandra Guerrero

Sometimes, words should fail us. This is one of those times.

One of the best new American photographers I'm aware of is Colombian born Alejandra Guerrero. In her work she explores and challenges female roles as sex symbols and is an active participant in her own carefully staged, emotional charged tableaus.

I came across her photo sessions, on Flickr, with pop sex goddess Julie Strain - a woman who has been photographed from every angle and every position possible. The key difference between all the illustrations and photos that I'd seen prior was that Alejandra included herself in the photos as a photographer. One with a searching eye. She appears to be trying to understand the mystifying attraction of Julie and also asking herself where she fits into the wider audience.

Alejandra is also a very beautiful model. When she is in front of the camera there is an hypnotic obsessive search occurring. A search that revolves around defining crucial mile markers of self-image and esteem. I dig the way she stares back into the barrel of the camera lens sharing a candid reflective moment.

In her serious work behind the camera, there are often extreme contrasts (clothed vs. naked, tied vs. free, beautiful vs. ugly) represented through two models having these kinds of wild physical encounters that often have a third party included as a voyeur (A, B, C). Her work is deeply provocative and sexually charged. Even the stuff that borders on porno borrows all the cliches - w/out the back hair or penetration but with the burning vitality. In this aspect, the themes of her compositions edge their way into deeper classifications of the nature of desire. Raw savage foreplay.

Alejandra's work explores the nature of being a viewer and empowers those who are viewed. She gives the term "sex act" a whole new meaning. Challenging, feisty new work.

References:

• Alejandra Guerreo, Portfolio Site

But Is It Art?: Paris is Burning

Paris Hilton Autopsy, Daniel Edwards 2007.

The work of relevant artists, like Daniel Edwards whose interactive sculpture is pictured above, is to choose from the constellation of culture those figures who embody a value or a sin. The artist represents that ideal in their work. The edge in good art comes from relevance.

The raw and controversial work of M.F. Hussain in his native India, portrays Indian deities in every day life, Luncheon on the Grass portraying artists and their muse together by Manet, and Olympia again by Manet - confront us with the public's ideal versus the source of this tremendous beauty. This outrageous beauty is perceived by the artist. For the viewing audience, the living muse is an a object of desire and scorn.


Goddess Durga Astride the Tiger, M.F. Husain 2006.


Luncheon on the Grass, Edouard Manet 1863.


Olympia, Edouard Manet 1863.

There is a everpresent hypocrisy at work in contemporary culture. The attitude that infrequently rewards artists and their muse for their work also punishes them for an implied violation of morality. The same violation occurs in the viewing public's heart: repeatedly and in secret. In public, in the galleries, the artist and muse occupy that tragic dark space with their imagery or bodies and have for the past two centuries as Art became a more democratized experience.

Sheppard Fairey: This is Your God