Ninth Annual Seattle Erotic Art Festival

May 5, 2011

Explore the RED LIGHT DISTRICT, May 20 to 22

SEATTLE – This year, the Seattle Erotic Art Festival invites attendees to explore the RED LIGHT DISTRICT, an immersive weekend of visual art, film, performances, literary art, interactive installations, after-parties, workshops, and a museum-quality Festival Store. Thousands of visitors will enjoy three days of events at the ninth annual Festival, May 20-22, held in a new venue this year: Fremont Studios.

“The Festival this year is a giant leap forward, and we can’t wait to unveil it. The incredible art in the exhibition, the top notch performers on the stage, the scintillating new venue—it all adds up to the biggest, sexiest, most incredible event we’ve ever produced,” says Festival Director Clayton Hibbert.

Visual Art Exhibition
This year the Festival is presenting the work of 173 visual artists representing 13 countries from North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. The jury accepted painting, drawing, photography, mixed media pieces, and 27 sculptures—more than ever before—in glass, bronze, brick, metal, wood, and even LEGO® blocks. A few pieces of fully wearable art will be showcased on models. The Festival has pieces by many well-known artists, including an original work of art by acclaimed artist Carolyn Weltman. 

The 2011 jury members included artist and Art Department Chair of Cornish College Bonnie Biggs; art historian and erotic art expert Dr. Gene Burt; Deputy Director of Gay City Peter Jabin; artist and art collector Steve Jensen; and artist Nina Ruchirat. The jury will host a free panel discussion on Sunday about the art selection process.

Erotic Short Film Exhibition
For the first time, the Festival offers two complete short film programs, curated by Three Dollar Bill Cinema, producer of The Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. These will be screened in a built-in movie theater throughout the weekend, and include award winners from film festivals around the world. 

Main Stage and Ambient Performance
The main stage show, directed by Circus Contraption co-founder David Crellin aka Armitage Shanks, features a broad range of performance types, including aerial, blues dance, pole dance, live music, satire, and more, both nights at 10pm. The sets of the main stage show are an impressionistic metaphor of a Red Light District streetscape, with stars including the Luminous Pariah, Paris Original, ticktock dance, Evilyn Sin Clair and Ben de la Creme. Sunday afternoon showcases performance by the marching band Titanium Sporkestra, heading from the Fremont Sunday Market to the Festival.

Installation Art
For the second year, the Festival offered art grants to directly support artists in creating installations for the event. There are 17 installations works in the show. In addition, for the first time, the Festival is hosting an official book launch; local artists Chef Tiberio Simone and photographer Matt Freedman of the La Figa Project will sell and sign copies of their new book La Figa: Visions of Food and Form.

Literary Art Exhibition
The Literary Art Exhibition is presented in an intimate boudoir setting and features readings by many of Seattle’s well-known erotic spoken word artists. To further support literary art, the 26 poems and 12 short stories selected are available for purchase in an official anthology.

Festival Store
The work of hundreds of artists is available in the museum-quality Festival Store, open all three days, featuring thousands of prints, small works, jewelry, books, DVDs, and more.

The ninth annual Festival is May 20-22, 2011 at Fremont Studios, 155 N. 35th St. Doors are open Friday and Saturday, noon to 2am (18+ until 6pm, 21+ after), Sunday 11am to 8pm (18+). Tickets are available online now, while supplies last. Sunday is a $10 suggested donation.

For additional information about the Festival, please visit SeattleErotic.org or email press@SeattleErotic.org.

The Seattle Erotic Art Festival supports a vibrant creative community, promotes freedom of expression, and fosters sex positive culture through public celebration of the arts.

The Festival is the flagship program of the nonprofit Foundation for Sex Positive Culture, which promotes the many ways sex is beneficial through education, outreach, the arts, advocacy, and research programs that serve the public.