NAMIO HARUKAWA
FEMDOM
December 30, 2021 – January 23, 2022
ATM Gallery NYC is pleased to present Femdom, our historic exhibition featuring 20 never before shown works by Japanese fetish artist Namio Harukawa; the first solo show of Harukawa’s in New York.
Voluptuous women fill the frame in these drawings, nude or scantily clad and domineering, as their lanky, skinny and comparatively diminutive male counterparts lay in various poses of erotic subjugation. The compositions showcase iterations of the same power dynamics between these characters, repeated throughout his work with a devotion that reveals a uniquely obsessive thematic interest. The women tower over the men, dressing beautifully, disbursing cash, exchanging pleasantries with one another, or otherwise enjoying themselves. Male characters are often faceless, deprived and emasculated, relegated to the role of human furniture. Pleasure and humiliation are mixed; two concepts closely intertwined in the world of illustration that Harukawa presents to us. He draws a fine line between the two, reversing heteronormative gender roles within the bounds of sexuality and within the permissive space of fetish.
Much of Harukawa’s life and history remains anonymous. His name itself is a pseudonym, an amalgam of the names Naomi and Masumi Harukawa. Naomi is the heroine in Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s novel of the same name, while the artist’s surname pays homage to actress Masumi Harukawa, known for her role in Shohei Imamura’s Intentions of Murder, in which a devoted wife takes on a new life after being assaulted. His earlier known work appears on the Kitan Club, a magazine in Osaka Prefecture distinguished for it’s weird and obscure interests that encompass smut, porn, bondage, and erotic prose. Much like his American counterpart, Robert Crumb, he is part of the worldwide counter-culture waves of the 60s and 70s that pushed boundaries with the now time-honored tools of freedom of individual sexual expression. Harukawa’s work remains timeless, showcasing images and narratives that are as shocking to sensibilities as much as they humor and delight contemporary audiences.
The gallery would like to thank Benjamin Khakshour and Justine Freeman for generously lending these works out from their personal collection in Los Angeles, CA. It is a true honor to share and display such unique insight into the perversely poetic mind of Namio Harukawa.