Sex Worker Visions is an annual art show sponsored by $pread magazine that showcases visual art made by sex workers. First held in 2006 at the LGBT Center in Manhattan’s West Village, the show has been written up in the New York Times, The Metro, New York Press, and many other publications, both online and in print.
Sex Worker Visions II & One Nation Under Dildo - Arena Studios, Spring 2007
In $pread magazine’s second annual art show, which opened May 1, 2007 at Arena Studios, sex workers with an artistic bent stepped up and told their stories visually. The show included art by Annie Sprinkle<, Zak Smith, Genevive Zacconi, and Vena Virago, in addition to illustrations and photographs that have appeared in $pread magazine, as well as a special opening night exhibition of hand-decorated dildos by sex workers.
At events around the United States and Canada, sex workers gathered at sex-positive sex toy shops to paint, decorate and possibly mutilate dildos for inclusion in Sex Worker Visions II. Sponsored events occurred at Early 2 Bed in Chicago, Comes As You Are in Toronto, Adam and Eve sponsored a group of sex workers in Cleveland, and Vibrator.com sponsored a $pread event at Arena Studios in New York.
Me trying on Norene Leddy’s Platforms during the opening
Art installation, with laptop
Some examples of the dildo art:
Sex Worker Visions - The LGBT Center, Spring 2006
$pread magazine presents Sex Worker Visions, an art exhibition, gathering of sex workers and their allies, celebration of $pread’s first birthday and a collaboration with Sex Work Matters. The exhibition will commence with an opening reception on March 29th from 6-9 pm at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center at 208 West 13th Street and will remain open to the public until May. The show is curated by Audacia Ray, $pread executive editor and former assistant curator of the Museum of Sex, and will feature art work made by sex workers and/or about sex work.
Photos by Erin Siegal and Ida Benedetto
