UPCOMING:
Role Play Is My Safe Space
Photography by: Natasha Gornik
ON VIEW AT SHAG
Jun 18 - Aug 29, 2026
OPENING RECEPTION:
Thursday, June 18
6-8pm
ARTIST STATEMENT
Role Play is My Safe Space is a collection of work made over three decades as both photographer and subject. Behind the camera is where I have always felt my most confident, authentic self - I am a photographer, I am a voyeur, I control the gaze and the narrative. It is in these roles that I first began to explore and find my identity, both publicly and privately.
Desire has always been the undercurrent of my work. Since childhood, sexuality - for better or worse - has been a large part of my life. At nineteen I began exploring BDSM, at around that same time I picked up the camera. In those earlier years I photographed the people I wanted to be or be close to, the communities I yearned to exist in. Photography became my vehicle into this compelling world where fantasies converged with the everyday. The camera gave me a sense of belonging and mutuality. It was no longer only that I desired my subjects, but they desired the way I saw them. At the time, there was no greater feeling than that exchange.
To fully immerse myself in the work, I found it essential to understand what it felt like to be the one in front of the camera, to be gazed upon. This became another act of self discovery as well as a visual diary. I often created self portraits intended for a specific person(s). The Greetings series started as a birthday card for a lover, Heel came from a moment with my sex work client, Daddy 1 & 2 were inspired by a play partner I had an intense kink relationship with. These photographs are a record of my hunger to want and to be wanted.
NATASHA GORNIK | BIO
@natashagornik
Natasha Gornik is a Brooklyn-based visual artist whose work delves into intimacy, sexuality, and queerness. For over two decades, she has documented fringe subcultures through photography and film, capturing communities she deeply identifies with. In 2023, she self-published Gasm, a collection of short text vignettes and photographs created between 2009 and 2013.
Natasha also curates Sightlines, a semiannual short film screening that showcases diverse voices and perspectives through film and video art. She is currently working on the 7th installment.
Natasha's work has been featured in various publications and exhibitions. Through her imagery and storytelling, she invites viewers to reflect on and challenge societal norms.
natashagornik.com
CURRENT:
CINEPHILE
New work by Aris Cumara
Artist Statement:
I came to be a painter much later in the game than many artists working in the field. I painted my first full piece at 23 after getting a job as a muralist. I had no previous education in the visual arts, and the job gave me a crash course in medium, form, light, techniques, color, and many of the basics of creating art.
The idea to paint in DVDs came a few years into painting murals. Some work days, I would be tasked to sit out in the streets of NYC and watch heavy equipment to avoid any public tampering. At the same time, I was building a personal collection of DVDs. I simultaneously wanted to find a way to paint while I was out in the city while also recycling the many DVD cases that I was accruing. Eventually, I combined the two issues facing me into an easy, portable way to oil paint on the go.
A few months into this process, I decided to attempt one of these small paintings with a sex toy I had laying around. The colors were so vibrant, light hit it in such a unique way, and I had a lot of fun realizing a painting on a small canvas in such a quick timeframe. I do not layer these paintings and I do not go back to touch them up. I paint them once, let them dry, and move onto the next to capture the colors and emotions I am feeling at that particular time.
https://ariscumara.myportfolio.com/
@ariscumara
SHAG EROTIC ART | PUSHING BOUNDARIES + TABOOS