"The bodies in Jimmy DeSana's photographs are posed with objects. These objects are not simply props for human eroticism: rather, it seems as if the object is using the body for its own satisfaction, as if the bodies are not there for the sake of our enjoyment as viewers but rather for the things that are the agents of their poses." - Michael Newman
Read MoreJimmy DeSana was an American artist, and a key figure in the East Village punk art scene of the 1970s and 1980s and a pioneer in terms of colour photography technique. Inspired by Surrealist imagery, DeSana's photographs from this time present unexpected collisions between provocative postures and commonplace objects.
Jimmy DeSana (b.1949, Detroit, Michigan, d. 1990, New York, NY). Solo exhibitions include The Sodomite Invasion, Griffin Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada (2020), Jimmy DeSana and the Sex Appeal of the Inorganic, Amanda Wilkinson Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2020) 2017 Jimmy De Sana: Late Work, Steven Kasher Gallery, New York (2017), White Columns, New York (2007), Jablonka Galerie, Cologne (1989) and Pat Hearn Gallery, New York (1988, 1986). Group exhibitions include Tate Liverpool (2013), The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, The Walker Art Center Minneapolis, and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2012-13), The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2010), The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2009), Simon Watson Gallery, New York (1989), National Portrait Gallery, London (1986), and MoMA PS1, New York (1981).
Text courtesy Amanda Wilkinson Gallery.
