Stephanie Sarley

Stephanie Sarley (born (1988-06-21)June 21, 1988)[lower-alpha 1] is a contemporary American multimedia artist known for her surrealistic humor.[1]

Stephanie Sarley
Born (1988-06-21) June 21, 1988[lower-alpha 1]
Berkeley, California, United States
NationalityAmerican
Occupation
  • Artist
  • multimedia artist
  • video artist
  • illustrator
  • photographer
Websitestephaniesarley.com

An illustrator, printmaker, and video artist, Sarley is inspired by the "psychology of kink".[2] She is best known for her "fruit art videos", which appeared on Instagram beginning in late 2015. Additionally, she is known for creating a series of flower-themed and talking vaginas known as "Orcunts" and "Crotch Monsters."[3] She is the author of the adult coloring book Dick Dog and Friends.[4]

Her work has been exhibited internationally.[2][5]

Early life

Sarley was born in Berkeley, California, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. There she was raised by a family of artists who tended to take her to museums in the San Francisco area to "draw from the masters."[6] Her father is a storyboard artist in Hollywood and her grandfather took part in the art scene as well. Her mother directed "Women in Film," a film festival.[6] Sarley studied and apprenticed in classical arts, eventually studying print-making at Laney College in Oakland.[7][8] Sarley knew she wanted to be an artist by the time she was 11 years old. "When I was young, I studied the masters but I didn't realize at the time the masters were only men", she said. "I didn't have that perspective at the time."[3]

Artwork

With a background consisting of traditional fine arts apprenticeships such as printmaking, stone-sculpting, and tattooing, Sarley has worked professionally as an artist for almost a decade.[7] In 2013, Sarley began working primarily in the digital medium.[9]

Sarley is best known for her fruit-art videos.[10][11]

Sarley has been known to depict women's sexuality through her artwork, specifically her "food porn" videos and photography.[12] Sarley states, "My work is about representing raw femininity in the arts."[13] Regarding Instagram's removal of her page and photos, Sarley has stated "Removing my photos from social media has given my art an extra dimension. It has become a form of protest. "[12] Sarley views vaginas as "the centre of life" and believes that shouldn't be viewed "as a threat, something to censor, or exploit." [14]

On recalling the creation of her first fruit video, Sarley described it as "a spontaneous primal urge". As the series went on, the films began to inspire countless copycats.[14]

Sarley's work is best recognized by multiple illustrative constructs. Some examples are the "crotch monsters", anthropomorphized vulvae, the "orcunts": part orchids, part vaginas, and the fruit art videos.[15]

Sarley's artwork deals with issues surrounding sexism, censorship, and women's empowerment.[16]

Publications

In 2013, Sarley published the adult coloring book Dick Dog And Friends which had been distributed via the Last Gasp.[15][4]

Several publications have featured Sarley's art including Hatezine,[17] art Das Kunstmagazin,[18] and Elle Brazil.[19] Sarely's art has also appeared in the "munchies" section of Vice Magazine.[20]

In 2016 Artsy magazine recognized Sarley as one of the "8 Women Who Turned Food into Feminist Art."[21]

Reception

Sarley has been referred to as the "patron saint of vagina drawings."[3] Critics have compared her work to Gustav Courbet, Egon Schiele, Georgia O'Keeffe.[3] Betty Tompkins, Andy Warhol, and Joan Semmel.[1][22] Noted art critics have praised her videos, some calling it "Genius," in print and online.[2][3]

Sarley's Instagram account has been disabled numerous times for "sexually explicit content" regarding her fruit videos. Sarley struggled with copyright over her original clips, and received negative comments from followers over the explicit nature of her work. After informing Instagram about this, the company shut down her account over its “sexually suggestive” content. Her account has been restored due to community pressure on instagram.[14][23]

Miley Cyrus was accused of plagiarizing Sarley's work in promotional videos for her EP, She Is Coming. The media recognized that the promotions were a copy of Sarley's "fruit porn". Sarley, however, has not been contacted by Cyrus or any Cyrus representatives.[24]

Feminism

Sarley believes that women "haven’t been represented in the arts and now it’s just normalized."[3] Sarley states that "[her] art challenges the gender confines men and women have to deal with."[1]

One of Sarley’s recent group exhibitions at the Museum Der Dinge in Berlin featured work that explored “modern-day feminism and how that translates into sexuality and personal agency."[25]

  • The controversy surrounding her Instagram was mentioned in Harper's Magazine's weekly review for March 15, 2016.[26]
  • Sarley's fruit art was featured on several Canal+ French television shows including L'Émission d'Antoine.[27]
  • Cosmopolitan named Sarley as one of the Twenty Best Vagina Moments of 2016.[28]
  • Calvin Klein has been noted for being heavily influenced by Sarley's work in one of their advertisement series.[29]
  • Loewe's spring/summer campaign of 2017, photographed by Steven Meisel is recognized for being in the style of Sarley's work.[30]

Notes
  1. Sarley's birthday is June 21.[31] She was 27 years old on March 10, 2016.[lower-alpha 2]

References
  1. Petrarca, Emilia (March 23, 2013). "Strange Fruit: Is Stephanie Sarley the Betty Tompkins of Instagram?". W Magazine.
  2. Lefebvre, Sam (March 10, 2016). "Forbidden fruit: why provocative art, blood oranges and Instagram don't mix". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  3. Frank, Priscilla (March 16, 2016). "You Can Start a Small Revolution Just by Drawing a Vagina (NSFW)". The Huffington Post.
  4. Sarley, Stephanie (2013). Dick Dog and Friends. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-615-91277-6.
  5. Whiteford, Meg (December 2016). "Los Angeles "We the People"". Artforum.
  6. artzealous.com https://artzealous.com/fruit-female-sexuality-and-instagram-trolls-in-conversation-with-artist-stephanie-sarley/. Retrieved December 3, 2019. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. Peters, Lucia (February 14, 2015). "Artist Stephanie Sarley's BDSM Illustrations Remind Us Just How Empowering Sex Can Be (NSFW)". Bustle.
  8. Verwey, Amanda (April 15, 2013). "Amanda Verwey's Art Monday #10: Stephanie Sarley!!!!". RADAR Productions.
  9. Samer (April 27, 2016). "A Vagina Monologue - Stephanie Sarley Interview". bitchslapmag.com.
  10. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d3nwqa/miley-cyrus-accused-of-plagiarizing-fruit-fingering-artist-stephanie-sarley-in-new-video
  11. "Feminism and Fruit: An Interview with Stephanie Sarley". Berlin Art Link. March 21, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  12. "Expositie We Are Food in Museum Jan Cunen stemt tot nadenken". Brabant Cultureel (in Dutch). May 1, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  13. "Feminism and Fruit: An Interview with Stephanie Sarley". Berlin Art Link. March 21, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  14. Dazed (June 13, 2016). "How finger-fucking fruit became an act of protest". Dazed. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  15. "Dick Dog & Friends Coloring Book".
  16. Gobbo, Madeline (May 16, 2016). "The Juicy World of Instagram's Controversial Fruit-fingering Artist". The Daily Dot.
  17. Gamble, Ione (April 2016). "The Zine Teaching Us to Enjoy, not Endure Our Bodies". Dazed.
  18. Stenger, Emma (December 2016). "Rader THEMEN DES MONATS". Art das kunstmagazin.
  19. Bittencourt, Bruna (December 2016). "Meet the artists who take Instagram to the limit". Elle Brazil. Elle Magazine.
  20. Zeger, Eli (September 22, 2015). "What I Learned from My Parents About Bartending in 1980s New York". Munchies. Vice.
  21. EPPS, PHILOMENA (December 30, 2016). "8 Women Who Turned Food into Feminist Art". Artsy.
  22. "Ep. #143: Priscilla Frank of the Huffington Post on Outsider art, sexualized art, and pop culture art". the conversation art podcast (Podcast). June 11, 2016. Event occurs at 1:05:00.
  23. "Les 400 culs - Femme et melon, à peine les connaît-on - Libération.fr". sexes.blogs.liberation.fr. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  24. "Miley Cyrus accused of copying artists' 'fruit porn' and abortion cake". Metro. June 7, 2019. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  25. "Stephanie Sarley's Sensuous Art Is Still Ripe". www.playboy.com. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  26. Riley, Sharon J. (March 15, 2016). "Weekly Review". Harper's Magazine.
  27. de Caunes, Antoine. "ORGASM". L’EMISSION D’ANTOINE. Canal Plus.
  28. Smothers, Hannah (December 2, 2016). "Twenty Best Vagina Moments of 2016". Cosmopolitan.
  29. Editorial Staff (July 14, 2016). "#inmycalvins, o Calvin Klein vuelve a las andadas". DBilbao.
  30. Eckardt, Stephanie (December 20, 2017). "The Most Provocative, NSFW Fashion Ad Campaigns of 2017". W Magazine.
  31. @stephaniesarley (June 20, 2016). "My birthdays tomorrow. The summer solstice" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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