Featuring: Michael Anderson, David Baskin, Chris Biddy, Ion Birch, Paul Brainard, Shiva Burgos, Richard Butler, Francesco Civetta aka DJ CASH, Andy Cross, Jules De Balincourt, Erik Den Breejen, Kent Dorn, Joel Dugan, Austin Eddy, Johnston Foster, Rebecca Goyette, Duncan Hannah, Daniel Heidkamp, David Humphrey, George Jenne / Damian Stamer, Aaron Johnson, Ezra Johnson, Misaki Kawai, Kevin Kay, David Kramer, Maria Kreyn, Hye Rim Lee, Travis Lindquist, Noah Lyon, Panni Malekzadeh, Andrea Mary Marshall, Taylor McKimens, Greg Miller, Ja... Read more

Featuring: Michael Anderson, David Baskin, Chris Biddy, Ion Birch, Paul Brainard, Shiva Burgos, Richard Butler, Francesco Civetta aka DJ CASH, Andy Cross, Jules De Balincourt, Erik Den Breejen, Kent Dorn, Joel Dugan, Austin Eddy, Johnston Foster, Rebecca Goyette, Duncan Hannah, Daniel Heidkamp, David Humphrey, George Jenne / Damian Stamer, Aaron Johnson, Ezra Johnson, Misaki Kawai, Kevin Kay, David Kramer, Maria Kreyn, Hye Rim Lee, Travis Lindquist, Noah Lyon, Panni Malekzadeh, Andrea Mary Marshall, Taylor McKimens, Greg Miller, Jazz-minh Moore, Joe Heaps Nelson, Lance Rautzhan, Max Razdow, Tom Sanford, Bill Saylor, Kristen Schiele, Ryan Schneider, Andrew Smenos, Emet Sosna, Jennifer Sullivan, Ulrike Theusner, Russell Tyler, Eric White, Genevieve White, Kelli Williams and Nicole Wittenberg.

When Robert Aldrich released his seminal war film in 1967 The Dirty Dozen, starring a seasoned, tough ensemble cast including Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, John Cassavettes, Jim Brown and Telly Savalas,, he created a genre not just pertinent to film but to other art forms as well. Music, writing, dance and the visual arts also have their renegades, their outcasts and outsiders, who prevail against impossible odds to find redemption through skill, cunning, madness – and their art.

The Double Dirty Dozen (& Friends) is an exhibition about the quest for freedom of expression – sexual, intellectual, spiritual, political – and ultimately salvation through making art. While most of the participating artists are not ex-cons, in the process of curating this unruly group I felt somewhat like the character Lee Marvin plays in the film, Major Reisman, assembling his posse of ne’er-do-wells for a suicide mission, in the face of art world establishment. The subject as presented to the double dirty dozen and their friends (which quickly morphed into a group of fifty rabble-rousers) was simply, sex: as explicit, raunchy, funny, bizarre, obscure or fetishistic as possible. Hence the “ratings” disclaimer on our doors during the months of August and September: “No One Under 18 Admitted”. While the goal is not to assassinate a group of German war criminals in a French Chateau, as was the task set forth for the ex-cons-cum-soldiers in the film, the challenge to win over the hearts and libidos of summer New York gallery-goers is no less daunting.

Among the highlights are Maria Kreyn’s Double Fractal Sex, featuring a threesome in full-on auto-eroticism; Tom Sanford’s interpretation of Whitney Houston’s last bath; Jules de Balincourt’s subtle wink and nod to the Sandusky scandal in Early Childhood Development Center; Johnston Foster’s gnarly, oversize sculpture of a dirty old man, El Natural; Jennifer Sullivan’s Adult Movie video; Francesco Civetta aka CASH’s Sex Ed 101 romp; Rebecca Goyette’s tongue-in-cheek X-rated Lobsta Girl adventures; David Humphrey’s dark humor via red-headed Clown Girl; Aaron Johnson’s bizarre Turducken, depicting a nubile blond having multiple penetration with live feces, complete with stinging nettles; Greg Miller’s prurient billboard-collage male gaze; Eric White’s literal Coming of Age handjob rendition; Hye Rim Lee’s digital, iconic sex; Kelli William’s exquisite anatomical arousals; Genevieve White’s abrupt, bodacious close-ups; Daniel Heidkamp’s faux-naïf portrayal of copulation; Panni Malekzadeh’s adolescent yearnings; Paul Brainard’s graphite slant on the kinky and bizarre in The Birth of Tim Tebow; Russell Tyler’s pastiche of blow-up sexdoll commerce; Taylor McKimen’s signature take on the crude and the lewd; Noah Lyons’ comic book relief; Erik den Breejen’s raunchy rock lyric canvas; David Baskin’s ironic cast rubber, dildo-shaped cosmetic bottles; Ulrike Theusner’s mannerist 19th century naughty musings and a multitude of other contributions by familiar faces and surprise guests.

I hope the viewer has as much fun delving into and experiencing this show firsthand, as I had putting it together. And that the few survivors – if any – come home triumphant, or at least find some sort of redemption.