Brooklyn Artist Louis Frato Is Depictg Gay Male Sex and Intimacy the More Chill Gen Z Era of PrEP

Contents:

• BROOKLYN ARTIST LOUIS FRATO IS DEPICTG GAY MALE SEX AND INTIMACY THE MORE CHILL GEN Z ERA OF PREP
• MY GAY ART-PORN BUT

BROOKLYN ARTIST LOUIS FRATO IS DEPICTG GAY MALE SEX AND INTIMACY THE MORE CHILL GEN Z ERA OF PREP

Courty of Sikkema Jenks & someone (like this wrer) wh only a middlg knowledge of art, ’s hard not to immediately thk “gay Pisso” upon first seeg the patgs of Louis Frato, 27, the Brooklyn-based pater who’s gotten a lot of attentn om the art world recent years and jt fished up his send solo show, Morng, at New York Cy’s Sikkema Jenks & Co. Frato’s imag of hunky, furry, young gay men havg sex or lyg around, alone or together, are cidly non-naturalistic, boastg a lot of the Pissoque featur of mornism, such as body parts pated out of proportn or perspective, or broken up to cubistic ponents. From his stud Bhwick, Brooklyn, Frato talked to TheBody about patg durg a panmic, about jt how “gay” (or not) he wants his work to be, and his relatnship to an olr generatn of queer artists who ma work durg the AIDS Frato his stud.

" Courty of Sikkema Jenks & I was thkg about how a gay artist like, say, Mapplethorpe wanted to take the most betiful photographs of flowers, so he wouldn’t get pegged as “jt” a gay artist. I was tryg to be more hont or accurate about a gay experience by plitg . Maybe my pictg sex so much was not really as much for gay people as was for straight people, this ncept of performg an inty to be You wanted to show banal aspects of your gay life like dirty dish the sk or a msy dner table, not jt sex?

There’s many thgs clud a gay experience. " Courty of Sikkema Jenks & So, I’m cur, how do you feel about a non–art expert like me lookg at your work and immediately thkg, “gay Pisso”? I don’t know if I believe that Pisso beg referenced by a straight artist is more appropriate than him beg referenced by a gay one.

MY GAY ART-PORN BUT

That’s kd of a ghettoized ia of history, where there’s hegemonic art history on one si and gay art history on the Are you fluenced by any gay artists particular? I read some reviews that noted your work seemed to pict gay sex a ls anx, post-AIDS era.

I had a teacher llege, Ken Tisa, who liv here New York, who was showg me artists who were makg work then, and I thought, “This is my direct history or leage as a gay pater. Before I cid to have sex a gay art-porn film, I felt was bt to n past my mother.