Antebellum Gallery to Feature Black Erotic Imagery Show

Antebellum Gallery (1643 N. Las Palmas) has announced a group exhibition on Feb. 14, featuring black artists creating black erotic imagery that confronts preexisting taboos and reinvents them as fetish.

The show, which is called “Blacks,” will feature the works of Belasco, Alva Bernadin, George Pitts, Renee Cox, Marc Baptiste, John Howard, and Carlos Batts. The exhibition looks to explore black exotica by presenting black as sexy, exotic, erotic, iconic, ironic, powerful, playful and lustful.

“This has been an exhibition about two-and-a-half years in the making,” the show’s curator, Carlos Batts, told AVN.com. “It really just kept getting bigger and bigger. These are six very established photographers and this is going to be a really provocative show.” Batts explained that after showing in Los Angeles, the exhibition will move to Montreal, and then Phoenix in the fall.

“This is not like a bunch black people shooting black and white photographs…that stuff is bullshit and nobody really wants to see that anymore,” said Batts. “We’re like black surrealists.”

The show looks to introduce a new breed of artists who have had the freedom to expand their visions in ways beyond their predecessors.

“All of us are different ages and from different backgrounds and that produces different perspectives on sex,” said Batts. “I think this show will be something special.”

The exhibit will run from Feb. 14 through April 4. Various themed salons will be presented weekly during the exhibition, culminating with the closing party on April 4.

For more information on the Antebellum Gallery, call (323) 856-0667, or go to www.antbellum.us.ms. More on Batts can be found at www.carlosbatts.com.