The homepage of US artist Patrick M, Webb is wholly dedicated to his large series of “Punchinello-paintings”. Resurrecting this tragicomic character from 17th century Italian commedia-della-arte, Webb casts Punchinello as a gay man in 20th-century America. Poignant and beautiful, the paintings tell the story of every facet of this often lonely man’s life, from solitary nights in front of the television, spying on other men in the showers at the gym, or simply at work or on the subway. Most pictures are painted in a style reminiscent of socialistic working class heroism from the forties, making a hero of this lonely struggler. Some moments of happiness and triumph occur, as when he meets other “punchinelli”, has an affair, celebrates gay pride, or when he just happily juggles colourful balls in a sunny park. The paintings together form a beautiful telling of the heroism of going through an ordinary, un-glorious life – as part of an often despised group of society.

I rate the Punchinello-series a full six stars.

http://www.patrick-webb.com/

Italian artist Diego Tolomelli works in stained glass in his Rome studio, where he makes art in the following categories: Interiors, religious and erotic stained glass. It’s kind of nice to present the spirit and the body together in this way, and a idea that has been taken further in the artworks. The juxtaposition of the formal, line-dominated glasswork with the more naturalistic nudes is rather interesting visually, even if the nudes could be better drawn. What really make the art worth a look is the artistic idea of the meeting between stained glass, with it’s connotations a medieval spirituality where the body is almost irrelevant, if not sinful, with directly erotic motives from the more private sphere.

http://www.ikostudio.it

Even if they may not exactly be the «masterpieces» the artist’s own home-page humorously names them, the artworks of Georgia-based artist Tony de Carlo is nevertheless interesting and well worth a perusal. The naivistic, Latin-American style fits perfectly with the idyllic and poetic subject matter, making the artworks seem like illustrations from a gay fable or fairy tale, peopled with flower-crowned saint, curious dogs and naked men eying the viewer seriously with large eyes. de Carlo makes a strange and mysterious universe, talking to us of peace, acceptance and life’s hidden mysterious meanings.

I rate Tony de Carlo’s «Masterpieces» 4 out of six stars.

To visit his online callery, click here.

The gallery of Virginia artist David Alan Crumpler is worth a look. He is a truly excellent draughtsman, rendering his sensitive portraits and male nudes with soft pencil shades and lightning, and very beautiful lines. Even the perfect-bodied nudes seem more like portraits of real people, with character and personality, than simple idealisations.

The artistic depth of the artworks is not great however, and after a while one gets a bit bored by their similarity. But I assume that these artworks aren’t actually made to hang together as a large exhibition. They are presumably meant to hang alone, for example as a commissioned portrait of a loved one – and in that capacity they are nice, very proficient – and quite likeable in their straightforward way.

I rate David A Crumplers gallery 3 out of 6 stars.

Click here to visit his website: http://www.muscleart.org/malenudes.htm

More like an artist’s sketchbook than a gallery proper, the website of the Iowa based artist Timothy J Wright is fun, unpretentious – and mostly quite interesting. The floating collages (shown here) are very good, as well some of the very poetic, introspective watercolours in “The Male Form” part of the gallery. Some beautiful photos, witty drawings of “Monster Cocks” – the small website is really awash with ideas for artworks. It would be very interesting to see the artist take his ideas further, and develop them as deeper works of art. But even with this in mind, this charming and very personal site is well worth a visit, and leaves me curious for what this interesting artist will think of next.

I rate Timothy J Wrights gallery three out of six stars.

Click here to visit his home page: http://timothyjwright.com/home.html

The website is actually rather frightful. A soundtrack of cheesy guitar music, and a picture browser that on my browser actually stretches the artworks to fit the display space leaves a lot to be desired from the presentation of the artworks.

The paintings are quite nice, though. Expressionistically painted with a quick and bold brush, they seem like snapshots from a never-ending idyllic summer, with the bodies of naked and half naked men forever glittering in the sun. The nakedness seems natural and innocent in an almost pre-sexual way, but with awakening gay longings simmering close to the surface. Speaking of acceptance and harmony, the myriad of likeable artworks are well worth a look.

I rate Stephen Corry’s gallery four stars out of six.

Click here to visit Stephen Corry’s gallery on Picture Trail:
http://www.PictureTrail.com/gid18159879

Certainly not bashful, Canadian artist Zachary Logan uses his own body as subject in his art. Frank and strangely poetic, his over life-sized paintings and drawings seems to be not so much about narcissistic self-exposure as about an honest and unafraid display of the artist as a vulnerable – and even ludicrous - human being. Draughtsmanship and painterly technique seems to fall easy for the youngish artist, letting the artworks subject shine unencumbered through. While the drawings displayed in the online gallery seems a bit stiff and similar, the paintings are quite interesting and makes the gallery well worth a visit.

I rate the Zachary Logan gallery a five stars out of six possible.

You can see some of Zachary Logans artworks here:
http://www.craigscottgallery.com/index.php?sec=2&artist_id=15

or read an interview with the artist in Yatzer here: http://www.yatzer.com/1424_zachari_logan%27_s_interview_at_yatzer

Using what he calls a «glamorization technique», the artworks of artist Fred Pyrczak make interesting statements about the nature of male beauty. The technique makes the portraits look like male versions of heavily retouched Hollywood divas from the 40s and 50s, a treatment normally reserved for portraits of women. Beautiful in a kitchy, Pierre&Gilles-like way, the portraits are quite interesting and well worth a look. The online gallery is a bit quirky in it’s navigation, but more importantly: it gives the artworks plenty of room.

I rate the gallery 4 out of 6 stars.

Click here to visit ZakImages by Fred Pyrczak.

The artwork of MIchael Broderick is caracterized by an extreme beauty of line. With excellent draughtmanship, the drawing’s sinous outlines and Art Nouveau-like compositions contrasts interestingly with the often rather brutal subject matter. Even though the gallery in total may seem a bit similar and monotonous after a while, it is worth a visit - if only for the originality of expression and beauty of the drawings.

I rate the gallery 4 out of 6 stars.

Click here to visit Michael Broderic’s Hottlead gallery.

The online portfolio of the Washington DC based artist Scott G. Brooks is hard to classify. Charmingly executed pencil drawings, and paintings with a sweet, childlike look belie their dark, twisted content of sexuality, disfiguration and wierdness. Brooks' background as an illustrator of childrens' picture books is evident in the drawings, and this combined with the contrast of the very somber thematic content of the artworks give them a very special, haunting quality. Not all are obviously gay-themed, but an undercurrent of outsiderish gayness runs through it all. It's facinating on the whole, grotesque and funny - and expertly executed. Scott G. Brooks' online portfolio is very well worth a prolonged visit, I rate it 5 out of 6 stars.

Click here to visit Scott G. Brooks' homepage.

The website of the South African artist Moxy Hart is a mixed pleasure, but a pleasure none the less. A fun and charmingly refreshing interface leads the way to four galleries, consisting of nudes, portraits, drawings and something called the "Good Phallus". This last one is very original: mobiles made of coloured or transparent perspex, in the form of be-winged penises floating about under a peaceful cloud. Perhaps not the thing for everyone's drawing room, the artistic contrasting of the "forbidden" motive with the innocence of the object and material makes them interesting pieces of art on their own right - as well as good fun of course. As for the other sections, the drawings is not too good actually, but the nudes and especially the portraits are worth a visit. Mr Hart looks like an artist that has a lot of interesting things coming if he lets him self loose. As it is the gallery is still well worth a look.

I rate the gallery 2 out of 6 stars.

Click here to visit Moxy Hart's online gallery.

As a site dedicated to black&white erotic photos of older, heavyset men, Among Gentlemen does not deliver too much. A total of 17 photos, and most of them rather bland, leaves this reviewer mostly cold. But this is not the complete picture: A small handful of the pictures are very good, a couple is arrestingly excellent. So if you have the patience to sort the chaff from the wheat, the site is worth a look. It seems that the gallery is very new, so one can hope that the proportion of good photos will increase over time.

I rate the gallery 2 out of 6 stars.

Click here to visit the Among Gentlemen gallery.

The AfriBoy gallery is actually much more interesting than it looks at the first glance. Rather messily presented, the website gives little away of the many interesting artworks the site actually carries. The many paintings, watercolours and drawings in both ink and pencil are presented as rather uninteresting details, that seldom does credit to the whole piece of art. So it all runs down to clicking away on the thumbnail to see if a good - or not so very good at all - artwork turns up. The site is not uninteresting, with original thought in both the artworks and the accompanying text. A better presentation, and a heavier sorting of which artworks to include or not would have helped the gallery enormously.

The most interesting part of the site is the section "Notebooks" - where you actually can flip through the artist's sketchbooks on your own. A good idea, which gives a very special intimacy to seeing the artworks.

I rate the gallery 3 out of 6 stars.

Click here to visit the AfriBoy gallery of African male erotic art.

The website of Dutch artist Peter Welleman is a fun and unpretentious collection of his gay comic drawings. Quite cheeky some of them, all are drawn in a charmingly simple style. Not all innocent fun (well, maybe innocent isn't the correct word here), some of the drawings raises a more political tone. Many of the drawings sadly have only Dutch text, but the rest make the site well worth a visit. A refreshing site on the whole, I give it 4 out of 6 stars.

Click here to visit Peter Welleman's gay cartoon gallery.

Having reviewed the artwork of Paul Richmond earlier in this blog, it is interesting to note that in this new online gallery his work is much easier accessible. In addition to building a flashy but professional looking front-end for the gallery, a clearer sorting of the artworks makes visiting the gallery to a much better experience than earlier. The most interesting work is found in the gallery "Paintings", where poetic watercolours and collages give a sensitive treatment of questions of identity and sexuality. The "Cheesecake" gallery is all kitschy fun, a irreverent pastiche of American commercial painting in an Rockwellian vein. The gallery's heavy use of Flash makes the site rather slow, but it's very well worth a visit and recieves 5 out of 6 stars.

Click here to visit the Paul Richmond Studio.