This Spring 2024, FCK is excited for the opportunity to delve into the Tom of Finland archives and create a series of erotic objects and photos for his three-month residency with the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles.

Back in Los Angeles for his second residency in the spring of 2024, FCK will partner with the Tom of Finland Foundation and VENIA studio to produce a series of ceramic workshops and immersive exhibitions of photo, video and ceramic arts. Part of these events will take place in collaboration with VENIA, an avant-garde and sustainable conceptual fashion studio based in Los Angeles in the DTLA arts district. The series of events presents installations that inspire spectators and share the design philosophy of employees: an expressive, organic and utilitarian design; while highlighting Tom of Finland’s mission to protect and appreciate the erotic arts.

Join us on February 29th for FCK’s pre-press release: Tools to Eat.

Discover the first preview as we present a series of ceramic works and photos exhibited at the VENIA studio from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the DTLA arts district.

*This is an open event. RSVP below*
*Special thanks to Models Antoine Quereilhac and Peter Cowen. Photography by FCK*

More About FCK / Frédérick Gautier

His artistic work, with a brutalist aesthetic, has previously explored architectural eroticism, investigating how sexuality is expressed in functionalist architecture. The micro-architectures always remain functional, initiating an implicit dialogue, especially through the concrete moveable wall  that partition spaces while evoking an erotic tension through the voyeurism they generate.

Adopting his brutalist aesthetic, ceramic artist FCK / Frédérick Gautier ventures into the field of sculpture and erotic photography, defying the standards of perfection and aiming to dissolve conventional boundaries. This project explores the complex boundaries between what is considered provocative, voyeurism, and art.

Throughout his encounters, men dressed as they are, will take hold of his ceramic pieces to stage themselves, turning them into props for a sensual game. Nonchalant postures, frugal scenes, and athletic poses will stand out in the series of photographs developed during the residency. The subjects enjoy the contradictions that these erotic and functional objects provoke, concealing areas of the body that they replicate in their reliefs. The structure of the body's positions are transposed into these pieces that serve both for sustenance and to bring the body closer to its own image. The photography of FCK fully connects the action and fantasies that connect the subject to the photographed object, to the point of nearly blending them together.

FCK has a prolific production and a nearly fetishistic relationship with the forms he creates. His creations are resolutely simple; they are containers. They aim not solely for ornamentation, but that are simultaneously functional, imposing, sturdy, and easy to handle. The objects are created to interact seamlessly with the human touch, leathers, and fibers. They are tools for nourishment but also reveal these fantasies, embodying an exploration of eroticism.