This article contains adult content.
Simple, evocative, passionate drawings are the name of the game on anonymous artist Alphachanneling‘s massively popular Instagram account. Austere characters, either smiling sweetly or with Art Deco non-expressions enjoy painterly pleasures of the flesh. Threesomes and foursomes are as common as missionary positions and cuddling in his feed, and the materials and styles are as diverse as the veritable Kama Sutra of sexual positions that spring from his mind.
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The Swiss artist brought his internet-tailored work into the fine art world last week with his first solo show last week at Jack Hanley Gallery, Utopian Erotic, an accomplishment made more impressive by the experimental origin of Alphachanneling’s Instagram presence. “I think for many artists, the first impulse is to think, ‘Why would I put a piece of art that took me months on a screen that is so small that you can’t see the nuances? People are going to see in three seconds and feel like they’ve seen the work,’” he tells W Magazine. “So then I thought maybe I’ll put out this other stuff that nobody sees, these stream-of-consciousness, unfiltered kind of drawings that have more of a provocative theme.”
Scrolling through Alphachanneling’s Instagram account, which he’s updated nearly every day for the past two-and-a-half years, is a mesmerizing dive into the ways we imagine and think about sex. Cross-sections of penises going into vaginas, floral imagery, ice cream, extreme closeups of hands touching, tasteful nudes, nearly abstract characters, cutting metaphors. Big dicks, tiny dicks, furries, foodies, bondage, rainbows, demons. That these images both caught on online—Alphachanneling has over 200k followers—and has found a place in the contemporary art scene is a sign of the times.
“I was kind of doing it a bit in jest, you know, like, ‘What would people think of this?’” he continues in a conversation with W Magazine. What do people on the internet think of nudes? We could have answered that question, but we’re glad Alphachanneling decided to find out for himself. Check out his work in the Instagrams below.
Alphachanneling’s Utopian Erotic will be at Jack Hanley Gallery through April 17. Follow him on Instagram here.
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