NSFW: The Art of the Dick Pic
NSFW

NSFW: The Art of the Dick Pic

By Eva Sealove

Consider the penis. It's a highly-charged, highly-fraught, highly-symbolic, highly-sexy (to some people, at least) and sometimes a very silly thing to have. Don't freak out, but with the advance of smartphones we are living in the age of, as Dan Savage puts it, the "portable porn factory" in our pocket. A dick, if you've got one or are in the presence of one, has become infinitely replicable in cyberspace. Snap a pic, send it. Solicited or unsolicited (seriously, don't), the ether is swimming in phalluses.

In a new group show at Downtown LA's Chimento Contemporary, Katie Bode and Benton Parker's new group art show looks to examine our fascination with images of the penis. The Dick Pic Show, open now through July 22, features a range of artists, each providing their own perspective on what a dick pic can represent. What does the male gaze mean when it's inverted? What does an image of the dick, in its now-infinite replicability, even mean?

Bode approached the dick from a feminist perspective, including artists from a diverse background of gender identities. "[The dick is] a symbol," she says, "but it's so much more than that. It's an idea." Peep the slideshow below to get a taste of the dick pic landscape.

View Slideshow

All images courtesy Chimento Contemporary