With 2007, we mark the fifth year of the Seat­tle Erotic Art Fes­ti­val (SEAF), which has grown so much since its incep­tion. When my friend Anna Hur­witz first asked me to help curate some of my artists into the event that she was help­ing to pro­duce, I knew she was on to some­thing sub­stan­tial. Anna was respon­si­ble for orga­niz­ing many of the now infa­mous ware­house art hap­pen­ings of the early 90s in Williams­burg, Brook­lyn, so I knew that, despite the immense under­tak­ing of cre­at­ing an inter­na­tional erotic art fes­ti­val, it would no doubt be of the high­est caliber.

The first year started off a bit shaky. The SEAF Orga­niz­ing Com­mit­tee (com­prised of 18 or so vol­un­teers and mem­bers of The Foun­da­tion for Sex Pos­i­tive Cul­ture, the pre­sent­ing orga­ni­za­tion) rented the base­ment gallery of the per­for­mance venue, Town Hall. On open­ing night, within two hours of open­ing the doors, the MC announced that there was no more room in the hall and asked that peo­ple who were not going to par­tic­i­pate in that evening’s live auc­tion leave so that some of the 200 peo­ple wait­ing out­side could get in to see the art. Despite the over­whelm­ing crowds, the event was a hit with those who made it in the door, and an even big­ger suc­cess with those who were for­tu­nate enough to par­tic­i­pate in the auc­tion and to take home new art­work for their collections.

The sec­ond year SEAF moved to the mas­sive exhi­bi­tion and per­form­ing arts cen­ter, Con­sol­i­dated Works, in Seattle’s South Lake Union area. Know­ing that this would add cred­i­bil­ity to the fes­ti­val, I attended to over­see the pre­sen­ta­tion of the art­works I was bring­ing, and to see how the SEAF orga­niz­ers would fare in such an expan­sive space. I was pleased to see that atten­tion to details improved immensely. The group expanded the fes­ti­val by uti­liz­ing the grand exhi­bi­tion areas and the the­aters, launched a widely pop­u­lar Fes­ti­val Store, fea­tur­ing small works, prints and col­lectibles and adding film and per­for­mance art. Art his­to­rian Dr. Eugene Burt gave pre-festival lec­tures to edu­cate the audi­ence about erotic art. I was delighted to be able to work closely with the mem­bers of the com­mit­tee, par­tic­u­larly Claire John­son, the Art Instal­la­tion Direc­tor; Larie Smoyer, the Auc­tion Coor­di­na­tor and devel­oper of the SEAF Data­base (which tracks all of the art); Allena Gabosch, Fes­ti­val Direc­tor; Damon Bux­ton, Web­mas­ter; Mark Solomon, Chief of Secu­rity; Mal­ixe, Lead Pho­tog­ra­pher; Janet Welt, Pub­li­cist and too many oth­ers to men­tion here.

Dur­ing the next two years at Con­Works, the com­mit­tee con­tin­ued to hone their pre­sen­ta­tion. A select group of vol­un­teers received train­ing on han­dling, hang­ing, wrap­ping and ship­ping art. Docents were added to assist with sales and ded­i­cated light­ing and sound vol­un­teers were also added. On the whole, the fes­ti­val has become a much more effi­cient pro­duc­tion. Most impor­tantly, through­out the past four past years, I’ve seen SEAF turn on a whole new audi­ence of art col­lec­tors, peo­ple who had never before pur­chased art, who came for the par­ties, but left own­ing some­thing spe­cial. These newly emerged art patrons were inspired by the art, the per­for­mances, the auc­tions, films, lec­tures, the store and the feel­ing of cel­e­bra­tion that per­me­ates the festival’s ambiance.

With sub­mis­sions by artists in the erotic genre from all over the world (many of whom travel to Seat­tle to par­tic­i­pate in the fes­ti­val), the cura­tors involved have bro­ken down the bar­ri­ers that face seri­ous artists within the main­stream art fairs. Here they have cho­sen to present the most diverse group of styles, medi­ums and ori­en­ta­tions of sex­u­al­ity as pos­si­ble. Not sur­pris­ingly, as word of the fes­ti­val has spread, the qual­ity of the art has improved tremen­dously over this short period of time and the num­ber of peo­ple attend­ing, pur­chas­ing and bid­ding on the work has grown immensely.

I am priv­i­leged to be invited back again, as Guest Cura­tor, and am bring­ing some of my very best artists, with nota­bles such as H.R. Giger, Annie Sprin­kle, Charles Gate­wood, Car­olyn Welt­man, Spi­der Webb and Brian Viveros. I’ve even dis­cov­ered some new tal­ent to pro­mote that I would never have run across had it not been for SEAF.

In 2004, I was walk­ing through the exhi­bi­tion and encoun­tered the work of a local Seat­tle artist, Rik Gar­rett. At the open­ing, he intro­duced him­self and showed me his won­der­ful, ethe­real pho­tographs. I enjoyed them so much that I signed Rik on to be rep­re­sented by my gallery in New York, Art At Large. In 2005, the same held true for another young pho­tog­ra­pher, Erin Frost. Her sen­sual self-portraits, often posed with affec­tion­ate objects of youth (roller skates, rock­ing horse, etc.), were of such a unique vision that I had to bring her work to New York, where she received imme­di­ate sales and press attention.

It was no sur­prise that 2006 was the best year yet (though we know great things are to come in 2007). The per­for­mances from the Lit­tle Red Stu­dio (chore­o­graphed by local artist Jeff Hengst) were as diverse as they were enter­tain­ing. A per­for­mance tableau was set up so that, when you entered the space, liv­ing art­work unfolded before you. Per­form­ers floated above, male and female (and those some­where in-between), provoca­tively clad and danc­ing on ropes and wires. In addi­tion, on the stage below there often appeared a sea of bod­ies. There were some other inde­pen­dent ambi­ent per­form­ers as well. One favorite was a fetish-clad woman play­ing cello, who, when she made a mis­take in her play­ing, was tapped not so lightly by the con­duc­tor behind her, bran­dish­ing a rid­ing crop for a baton.

The Sat­ur­day night auc­tion, with all of its ele­gance, and mod­er­ated by auc­tion­eer par-excellence, Laura Michalek, broke all pre­vi­ous records in both vol­ume and sales. The Deities of Eros cos­tume gala brought in an extra­or­di­nar­ily dressed audi­ence who delighted in the ambi­ent per­for­mance of Coralee Lynn Rose, who sat motion­less on an air couch, wear­ing just over seven inch, spiked heels. With his beau­ti­fully ren­dered fig­ures, the work of Cana­dian artist Fran­cois Dubeau got my vote for best new artist (the fes­ti­val audi­ence and jury nom­i­nated Best in Show). And, for those whose bud­gets didn’t allow for pur­chas­ing an orig­i­nal, the knowl­edge­able staff at the Fes­ti­val Store had some­thing for every­one in every price range, from greet­ing cards to prints, T-shirts to jew­elry and unusual collectibles.

I’m excited to be a part of SEAF 2007, which will be held in a new, more sump­tu­ous loca­tion closer to down­town. If the pre­vi­ous years are any indi­ca­tion, this next edi­tion is sure to break all the qual­ity of art, atten­dance and sales records, yet again. If I wasn’t per­son­ally involved, I would fly out just to attend and expe­ri­ence the fes­ti­val once again.

I think you should too.