“It’s basically sexy, big-eyed girls, up to naughty.”
That’s how Sas Christian describes her artwork, which she primarily creates as oil paintings. Christian is the featured artist for this year’s Dirty Show erotic art exhibition, which returns to Detroit’s Russell Industrial Center for back-to-back weekends of, well, plenty of naughty.
A British expat, Christian and her husband Colin recently moved to upstate New York after living in Florida for 30 years. While Christian has never shown in the Dirty Show before, Colin, a sculptor, has, and was the featured artist in 2016 — leading to Dirty Show creator Jerry Vile to extend an invitation to Christian this year.
“Jerry had asked if I’d be interested, and I was like, hell yeah — gosh, yes, please,” she says. “And then when he said I’d be the headliner, I was like, marvelous.”
What started as a small art show launched by Vile in the year 2000 when he was publishing the now-defunct Detroit-based humor magazine Orbit has since grown into massive event that draws artists the world over. Aside from an exhibition of visual art there’s also burlesque performances, BDSM spanking booths, go-go dancers, and attendees who have become just as much of a part of the show in their own right, donning their finest fetishwear for people watching.
While Christian’s doe-eyed muses exude a femme-fatale swagger, the artist approached her craft more prudently. She says she didn’t start her career as a painter until she was around 30.
“I was a little late to the game,” Christian says. “I’ve always drawn, and I’ve always created paintings and stuff, but I had a huge self-confidence issue. And so that’s why it took me a while.”
In England, Christian studied art in college, with the goal of pursuing a more straight and narrow path. “My parents were very much against me studying art,” she says. “So we kind of went back and forth on it. And they said if I studied graphic design, then I could go.”
She adds, “It was very educational. And I had a good time — maybe too much of a good time. But what it did was it really did tell me that I really wanted to paint.”
In a way, bad luck helped nudge Christian to follow her dreams. Right after graduation, someone broke into her car and stole her portfolio. Being the dawn of the digital age, all of her samples were hand-made, and she had no copies.
“It taught me a lesson: never leave your entire body of work in your car,” she says.
She tried to find work in London, but found the competition to be quite fierce. Eventually, she and her husband decided to try to start a new life in the United States, moving to Florida to work in a print shop. Christian also found work as a commercial artist, and she and Colin soon started their own company creating latex fetish clothing.
With a body of work that is undeniably imbued with an erotic charge, we have to ask: was her career in latex an inspiration?
Christian pauses to consider the question.
“Most of my work is more emotive and attitude-based,” she says. “But I suppose in that respect, certainly. I mean, my girls are kind of, you know, no-nonsense. They have attitude, and they have opinions. I mean, it’s all read through the eyes. They’ve gone through some shit, and they’re still standing. I like to give them that kind of narrative in the back of my head.”
She adds, “I think everything that I’ve lived and done has contributed to what comes out in my paintings.”
Christian says she first encountered the wide-eyed style made popular by Japanese anime long before it became a global pop culture force when, as a child, she visited a friend’s house. “She was Japanese, and she had a series of collectible dolls that were in anime style, the manga style with the big eyes,” Christian says. “I thought they were absolutely gorgeous.”
But it wasn’t until the “lowbrow” or pop surrealist art movement took off around the turn of the century that Christian truly found her scene. A self-taught painter, she says she found inspiration in the work of Mark Ryden, known as the godfather of pop surrealism, whose oil paintings blended kitsch and fine art. “When I was working as a commercial artist, one of my colleagues brought a magazine called Juxtapoz which at the time was really heavily doing the pop surrealist art,” Christian says. “And they had Mark Ryden in it. I didn’t even realize you could make a living doing this kind of art, that there was a place for it.”
She adds, “I thought the art scene was either old masters or just stuff that wasn’t of interest to me. And that made it very exciting for me, because that meant there are places for people like myself.”
Little by little, Christian gained confidence as a painter, doing small gallery shows and selling paintings. She started placing small ads in art magazines, which soon began featuring her work. She eventually started getting invited to show in pop surrealist exhibitions alongside artists like her hero Ryden, which was a huge ego boost.
For the Dirty Show, Christian will exhibit original paintings, around eight high-quality prints of existing paintings, and graphite drawings. While many of the original artworks at the Dirty Show are available for purchase, it also makes items like prints, photos, and drawings available for sale in an on-site print shop at a lower price point for collectors with smaller budgets.
“Personally, I’m one of those people,” Christian says. “If I can get a really nice print by an artist that is a limited edition, I find that really exciting.”
Christian says she and her husband plan to fly into Detroit for the show on Friday and Saturday.
“It really is an honor to be a part of this show and to work with Jerry,” she says. “And I’ve already had a little sneak peek at some of the other artists that are taking part, and the other paintings I’ve seen so far are so wild — outrageous, glorious, absolutely glorious.”
She adds, “I can’t wait to see everybody else’s work. This is the place to see it.”
Subscribe to Metro Times newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
