The Call for Visual Art

All artists 18 years old and over are encouraged to submit finished works of erotic art in any medium. Sculptors, multimedia artists, and painters, are particularly encouraged to apply. Submissions are made through a special artist portal, and this art is considered for our juried exhibition. The call for art opens December 1, 2024, and closes January 15, 2025. No submissions or changes to submissions will be accepted after January 15, 2025.

The Visual Art Jury

To increase the scope and diversity of the selected exhibition art, the jury is comprised of five individuals: an artist, an art professional, an art collector, a sex-positive activist, and a Festival committee member. Jury members are selected by the Festival’s Steering Committee, and change each year except under special circumstances or on the basis of expertise in the realm of erotic art.

Sandra

Sandra (she/her) resides in the Pacific Northwest, having called Seattle home since the early 1980s. She has been a member of the sex positive community for nearly two decades and has participated in SEAF as an Art Activist almost as long.

Sandra is very grateful to Pan Eros and SEAF for promoting a safe space for erotic art and admires artists that take concrete steps to realize their vision. She is honored to serve as a juror for SEAF, an event with amazing tradition and stature.

Stella Harris

Stella Harris is a certified intimacy educator, professional coach, trained mediator, and published author focused on communication & relationships. Stella’s wide-ranging expertise has led to being featured on the evening news discussing the importance of sex education in schools, appearing as an expert witness in court, and even speaking as an authority on banana slug mating habits. Learn more about Stella and her books, Tongue Tied: Untangling Communication in Sex, Kink, and Relationships and The Ultimate Guide to Threesomes on her website, www.stellaharris.net, or follow @stellaharriserotica on Instagram.

Rae Akino

Seattle and D.C. based, self-taught visual artist. What began as a coping mechanism for depression and anxiety became a lens to examine and understand the world. Being closeted, a slave to others expectations, and losing one of the most important people to their existence caused a mental, emotional, and spiritual paralysis. The need to escape turned into isolation, until they were encouraged to draw their way out of it.

Influenced by music, theater, literature, film, life, people, etc; the DC native uses bold colors and expressive form to explore identity, sexuality, Afrocentrism, spirituality, mental health/ awareness, consciousness, and self. Centering the viewer into an emotional, mental, and spiritual connection with themselves opens the door to endless possibilities. Awakening desensitized emotions lead to the questions that spark conversations.

Living in a society where boxes and labels are a way of life, forces one to hide and resent the parts of themselves that are not accepted. Never being strictly one thing or another fostered the realization that “I am all things” “We are all things”.

DasBee

As a passionate art collector and advocate, DasBee has been a driving force in celebrating the transformative power of artistic expression. Since joining the Seattle Erotic Art Festival (SEAF) planning committee in 2020 and the steering committee in 2023, she has served as SEAF’s Marketing Lead and Performance Co-Curator, merging her love of art with her expertise in event branding and audience engagement.

To Das, art is the purest form of self-expression, a mirror reflecting the human experience in all its beauty and complexity. SEAF holds a special place in her heart as one of her most cherished projects, embodying her belief that creativity thrives in spaces of freedom and exploration.
With over 15 years in the performing arts and a deep connection to the visual arts, Das brings a dynamic and thoughtful perspective to the jury, honoring the stories and emotions that art invites us to share.

Greg Rubin

Greg Rubin comes from a family of art collectors and has spent his life surrounded by art. As an artistic omnivore, fine art hangs between pieces made by friends or purchased at a coffee shop. When friends invited him to see their work displayed at SEAF 2006, he discovered the world of erotic art and wanted more of it in his life. Over the last nineteen years he has regularly participated in SEAF as a volunteer, performer, author, Art Activist, and, of course, collector. The festival has become a core part of his calendar, and each year he explores it and learns new ways to answer the question of “What is erotic?”

Selection Process

All submitted art is screened for adherence to Festival submission guidelines and standards. Jurors preview submitted art online, and then gather as a body to finalize their votes on which works to include in the Festival. Consensus is not required for art to be accepted, and we encourage jurors to debate and discuss the submitted art. The number of pieces selected is dependent on available wall space and varies from year to year; usually 200-250 pieces. Jurors never know whose work they are reviewing during the process; unknown and famous artists alike are given equal consideration and opportunity.

The Visual Art Jury will select pieces based on: depth of emotion, body diversity, quality of execution, originality of subject, and thought-provoking elements that ignite conversations about sexuality, identity, gender, relationships, art, and/or culture. Because the jury changes each year, we cannot predict or anticipate what will be chosen. We encourage artists to submit multiple pieces every year.

Please do not attempt to contact the jury, either before or after the selection process, about your art. Contacting a member of the jury for the purpose of swaying their vote, or even just explaining your art, is grounds for disqualification.

Invited and Curated Art

While juried work remains the majority of art showcased at the Festival, we invite artists whose work expands the representation, focus, conversation, and appreciation of erotic art. One of the Festival’s goals is to center marginalized and underserved artists and works depicting their experiences. To increase the scope of works shown, we also include specially-curated exhibits to feature artists from marginalized communities or explore specific themes.

The Festival Director, Exhibition Curator, and Visual Art Manager work together to invite artists and guest curators. They may ask the jury to give input on the invited art. Art submitted to the jury may become invited art at the discretion of the Festival Director or Curators.

Guest Curator for Comics – Nero Villagallos O’Reilly

Nero is a Seattle-based indigenous Latino cartoonist with 10+ years in the erotic comics scene. His comics use the framework of gratification, sexual and psychosexual, to tell stories about gay men’s lives. They tread the line of known and unknown horrors, often encouraging the reader to draw their own parallels between fear and arousal. They also prominently feature discussions around BDSM, hedonism, and the frightening world of the food industry.

His fiction and non-fiction work has been published by Slipshine, Filthy Figments, Iron Circus Comics, Fortuna Media, The Nib, Real Change, and more. He is also one of the founders of The Cartoonist Cooperative, an organization that seeks to improve working conditions for cartoonists everywhere.

If you have any questions, please contact exhibition@seaf.art.