House of Illustration will open the UK’s first public solo show dedicated to artist Tom of Finland

This year House of Illustration will open the UK’s first public solo show dedicated to gay cultural icon and prolific artist Tom of Finland (born Touko Laaksonen), in partnership with Tom of Finland Foundation and the Finnish Institute in London.

This timely exhibition, on the centenary of his birth, will celebrate the artist whose homoerotic visions had a profound effect on gay communities in Europe and North America during a pivotal period in their history and continue to have an immeasurable influence on popular culture today. Tom of Finland: Love and Liberation will display 40 works on paper produced from the 1960s to the 1980s, both before and after homosexuality was decriminalised in much of Europe and the U.S.

It will include early drawings of men fighting that constituted the only legal way to show physical contact between men before decriminalisation, as well as illustrations from his iconic Kake comics and rare linocuts produced in very limited editions.

The exhibitiion wil be on from the 6th of March until late June.

Book your ticket online

AFTERGLOW is back in London's Waterloo East Theatre

After its sold-out run at Southwark Playhouse, AFTERGLOW transfers to Waterloo East Theatre, London with a brand new cast.

Josh and Alex are in an open married relationship. But after young Darius shares their bed for a night, a new intimate connection begins to form, and all three men must search for one another’s notions of love, intimacy, and commitment. Will their search for passion and intimacy come as easily as their freedom to play around?

Afterglow is a ‘steamy stripped-down look at gay intimacy’ (Huffington Post).

Recommended age 16+. This show contains strong language and nudity.

The play runs for a limited season. For more info and tickets check HERE

source: afterglow.co.uk

SteFan

Photographer Will Dube

starring Stefan Thomas

A Freedom Movement 2019 - The Exhibition at Leman Locke, London

The lifestyle hotel in Aldgate East, continues to host worth seeing creative exhibitions. Leman Locke is now introducing Michelle Beatty and her new photographic series A Freedom Movement 2019.

Michelle is an Australian born Londoner who has spent a creative lifetime moving seamlessly from the carnival of catwalks and high fashion showrooms, to the subtle backdrops of fine art photography - landscapes, architecture and foreign, far-off lands. For the first time, Michelle has created a body of work that straddles these two parallel career tracks, and the contrasting sides of herself.

Leman Locke is proud to present her newest photographic series, where three talented subjects with backgrounds in ballet, modelling and choreography are captured in the prime of their lives; embodying strength, wisdom, and feminine beauty. The subjects are offset by strong skies, powerful waves and brooding clouds. The photography exhibition runs across all 22 floors of the East London lifestyle hotel, open to the public from 10th May until 31st July.

RSVP to see A Freedom Movement at Leman Locke here >

Follow Michelle Beatty on instagram >

HIS HANDS Short Film: a powerful erotic thriller

Directed by Arron Blake and Darius Shu, “HIS HANDS” comes to break your silence and speak to your soul.

Arron Blake also stars in the film and he plays an unnamed younger man who visits the flat of an older man, played by Philip Briseboise; the door to the flat resembles the bars of a prison cell, and Blake touching on the loud buzzer breaks the eerie silence. The action exclusively takes place within this darkened interior, which feels like a strange, disquieting bubble separate to the daytime cityscape outside.

An atmospheric psychological thriller which last as long as your tea break (13 minutes) but brings out themes of acceptance, loneliness and both gender and sexual identity; very important topics for the LGBTQ+ and the humanity in general.

After the thriumph in London in 2018, the film is set to premiere this April in Tribeca Film Festival and we can’t wait to see it screening in Europe.

‘‘HIS HANDS’’ has already won awards at the Oniros Film Awards and been screened at Perth’s International Queer Film Festival and The Lowry ahead of a wider release later this year.



A new Azzedine Alaïa exhibition is coming to Milan this month

After the huge success of the London’s Design Museum exhibition "Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier", a new announcement confirmed the good news.

The exhibition is travelling to Milan and it will be open on the 20th of September for four days only! 

Showcasing his creations from the early 1980s and following his creative path right up until his final Paris Couture show in July 2017, the retrospective is curated by fashion historian Olivier Saillard, who, it’s safe to say, knows the ‘King of Cling’ and his work like the back of his hand.

Saillard was also behind Alaïa retrospective Je Suis Couturier, which took place in Paris earlier this year. The exhibition brought together looks including the iconic purple hooded gown worn by Grace Jones in 1985 Bond film A View to a Kill and a series of dresses worn by the likes of Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Helena Christensen.

Taking place in the Italian city’s Palazzo Clerici throughout fashion week, the exhibition runs from September 20-25. Book your flights now, fashion fans.