What does Jerry Vile credit for the longevity of the Dirty Show, the annual erotic art exhibition he founded that is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year?
“I chose the right name,” he says. “The name is like a magnet. It attracts the right people — both artists and attendees — and it at the same time repels the wrong people, so we don’t get many of the stick-up-their-ass-type snobs you find at so many art fairs and galleries.”
That and — well, sex sells.
“The subject matter of the show releases dopamine in the brain of the attendees, so by viewing hundreds of erotic works and constantly seeing scantily clad stage performers and go-go dancers, the brain is flooded with feel-good chemicals,” he says.
Over the years, the event has grown from a small art party held in the Royal Oak offices of Vile’s former humor magazine Orbit to a sprawling festival held in recent years at Detroit’s Russell Industrial Center over two weekends. (In the years between it has been hosted at designer Camilo Pardo’s downtown studio, the Book Building’s former Museum of New Art, Bert’s Warehouse Theatre, and the Tangent Gallery.) The show features hundreds of works by artists from Detroit and beyond, as well as burlesque and drag shows, a Cinerotic Film Festival, a dance club called the Daddyhole, and the best people-watching you’re likely to experience during this otherwise miserable time of year.
“And now that so many patrons are comfortable dressing skimpy, sexy, and shockingly — everywhere your eyeballs land, it makes your brain start releasing happy hormones,” Vile continues. “This makes everyone in the venue feel good and have fun.”
He adds, “It’s pretty hard to be unhappy at the Dirty Show.”
While the show started with mostly local artists, as it has grown it draws submissions from all over the world. Eventually, it began highlighting special “Featured Artists” ranging from local stars like Glenn Barr and Niagara to national and international artists including H. R. Giger, designer of the terrifying yet sexually charged monster from the Alien movies; cult-fave filmmaker John Waters; and pin-up photographer Bunny Yeager, among others.
This year, Vile says he plans to feature work from many of the “Featured Artists” from over the years, sort of like the Dirty’s Show’s “Greatest Hits.”
“I used to try to get famous erotic artists, and lucky for me, that didn’t work out as well as I wanted,” Vile says. “Because, you know, it’s like 90% white guys.”
But that, too, has changed.
“It used to be hard to get female artists to participate,” he says. “I think there might be more females than males in the show now.”
Vile says he has seen other trends change over the years, too.
“Probably the biggest change in the art is there’s more pubic hair now,” he notes. “Pubes are back.”
And Vile’s advice to anyone who wants to launch their own erotic art show?
“Start out slow and giving people booze, like galleries used to,” he says. “Make something that people want to come back to. That’s been our saving grace, is that each year it’s fun enough that people not only come back, but they tell their friends about it.”
