Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of twenty-five photographs by David Hurles, curated by John Waters and Dian Hanson, entitled Outsider Porn.
The exhibition's title, Outsider Porn, communicates the essence of David Hurles's work over the past 40 years, in which he's explored, experienced and captured an underground culture of frightening, psychotic sexual expression, aggressively pushing the boundaries of erotic taste. With these raw portraits of exaggerated criminal masculinity, Hurles continues to confuse and horrify the advancement of homoerotic art.
Born September 12, 1944 in Cincinnati, Ohio, David Hurles was attracted from earliest memory to the toughest boys in class, and later to his older sister's delinquent boyfriends. In 1965 he moved to San Francisco, working first as a Kelly Girl typist, and then as a model specializing in auto-fellatio. In 1968 he became a photographer, supplying nude photos of men he picked up in the streets to the burgeoning gay pornography industry. He chose the studio name Old Reliable and, first in San Francisco and then in Hollywood, photographed, video- and audio-taped the roughest street hustlers, muggers, thieves and murderers for gay magazines, and for his successful mail order business. He has said that fear is his greatest inspiration. In the course of his career he was burglarized, robbed and beaten, and finally, in 2002, lost his cameras, his home, and his livelihood to the men he called "his world."
Artist John Waters, like Hurles, pushes boundaries of conventionality through the representation of human sexuality. Working closely with Dian Hanson, Sexy Book Editor at Taschen, Waters assembles an exhibition of photographs that truthfully and accurately portray Hurles's philosophy. In "Role Models," Waters described Hurles: "David likes psychos. Nude ones. Money-hungry drug addicts with big dicks. Rage-filled robbers without rubbers. And of course, convicts—his ultimate Prince Charmings …"
Hurles gained some above ground recognition in 2005 with the monograph Speeding (Green Candy Press), followed in 2008 by The Big Penis Book (Taschen), and Outcast (Green Candy Press), an overview of his color work which was just released. Hurles currently lives on government assistance in a Hollywood nursing home since suffering a stroke in 2008. According to Hanson, "Hurles' intelligence and affection for his models remain intact, and the staff has come to accept the aging, but still intimidating, men who occasionally visit."