RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK - Photographer Sarp Kerem Yavuz

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton

Through his 2014 series "Maşallah," photographer Sarp Kerem Yavuz navigated the conflicts and alienation that arise as a result of the dual nature of his Turkish heritage.

The Louvre reopened on Wednesday after shutting down for three-days of art-world anxiety over the spread of the coronavirus. On the same day, we read a New York Times profile on a D.C. introvert's 150 piece art collection, including work by Sarp Kerem Yavuz. In 2014, the Turkish photographer began exploring gender and religion in his series "Maşallah" by projecting islamic patterns onto naked men. Priced between $2,500 and $10,000, and represented by Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago, the work of Sarp Kerem Yavuz is our art of the week.

Michael Manganiello Collects Yesterday’s and Tomorrow’s L.G.B.T.Q. Art

THE NEW YORK TIMES 
Show Us Your Walls
By Audrey E. Hoffer

Michael Manganiello in his Washington home with, from left, Gio Black Peter’s “My Body Is a Castle, One Day I’ll Outgrow It” (2017); Sarp Kerem Yavuz’s “Massallah” (2014); and Mr. Peter’s “Venture to the Stars” (2017). Emma Howells for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — In Michael Manganiello’s condo, graceful boys and handsome men sit on the beach, climb bales of hay, pose beside ancient ruins, dangle legs over a stone wall, stand in a forest or lie in bed. “I’m interested in art that addresses homosexual narratives and works that push boundaries in the realms of expression of intimacy and sensual pleasure,” said Mr. Manganiello, 61. The 150 paintings, photos, drawings and prints at his home in the Iowa building, in northwest Washington, represent both emerging and established talent. The creators include Don Bachardy, George Platt Lynes, Mark Beard, Jimmy Wright, Slava Mogutin, Roland Caillaux, Donna Gottschalk and Sarp Kerem Yavuz, a Turkish photographer who projects textile patterns onto male bodies, creating a stained-glass effect. [More]