The New York-based artist Jeff Faerber (1974) has been a huge fan of classical Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) for as long as he can remember, including shunga as well as samurai battling monsters, peaceful landscapes, or the iconic Hokusai wave and mountain print.
Superhuman Phallusses
Something about their signature aesthetic, the line quality and flat, limited colors remind him of superhero comics from his childhood. The Japanese shunga prints, of course, have the added arousal factor and superhuman-sized hero phalluses which make them particularly noteworthy.
Below are two of Jeff's most recent creations with accompanying commentary from the artist himself...
Fig.1. "Three small deaths and a glass of raspberry infused Lemoncello topped off an evening of excess and intrigue as the negotiators initiate their flow chart in a deliberate and circumscribed manner, derived from a series of predetermined menu options of behavioral norms on their Venn diagram, gleaned from romance novels, Hollywood movies and streamed erotic content" (February 2023)
Jeff's blurb to the "Three Small Deaths" piece:
"It is interesting to me to contrast the primal, animalistic drives that can fuel sex contrasted with a more analytical, methodical view of how that gets expressed. It is like trying to lasso a bucking bull to get a grasp on it. Therefore, I like the idea of people using flow charts and diagrams to map out their fantasies, and how they manifest. So for this piece, we have a couple charting their interests in analog paper graphs to map out their evening’s activities, down to the order of the positions and where they will finish so there are no surprises."
Fig.2. "The three sodomists spent a leisurely afternoon getting to know each other better while enjoying the passage of time, finding contentment in activities having vague yet moderate erotic undertones." (February 2023)
Blurb to "The three sodomists:" piece:
"The idea for this title came from the not-quite-a-word word “sodomists.” Once I had such a specific and overly graphic term, I wanted the rest of the words of the title to dance around the topic at hand, like a leisurely stroll, avoiding any specificity as to what our three protagonists were up to. Also, by including three figures, I wanted some of their torsos and limbs to overlap and create a confusing mound of protruding arms and legs that also contrasted with the calm and tranquil title."
In the Premium version of the article more insights on Jeff Faerber's fascination for classical shunga.
Click HERE for our earlier interview with Jeff Faerber in which he talks, among other things, about his admiration for Egon Schiele, his other influences, shunga art and much more...
On the artist's site you can find more of his shunga work
Source: Jeff Faerber
