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'Thread Art Paintings' by Sal Salandra at East Hampton Shed on Wheels

Sal Salandra moved to East Hampton with his husband 27 years ago from their apartment in Manhattan’s West Village. For 55 years, Sal worked as a hairdresser, “I’ve seen everything - fingerwaves, beehives, bird nests with little hair curl ‘eggs’, the messy ‘just fucked’ look - that one was very popular.” 

But it’s Sal’s passion for his favorite pastime, needlepoint, that's taken center stage. Sal first picked up needlepoint 40 years ago when he was bedridden with the flu. “My mother-in-law sent me a needlepoint kit, and I thought ‘what the hell am I going to do with this?” Sal has been making “thread art paintings” ever since. “I haven’t missed a day in 40 years.” Like many needlepointers Sal started with quaint motifs - portraits of canines and still lifes. Out of 4 decades of needlepointing, It has only been in the past 5 years that Sal started to explore the human body - this is what led to his distinctive sexual scenarios. “I feel sex in America is so feared. I mean, we eat everyday, and have sex every day, so what’s the difference?” 

Sal did not receive any formal art education. He says, “I am completely self-taught.” Sal draws inspiration from his life experiences, religion and pornography. Sal’s most recent erotic thread paintings are brightly colored, playful and sweet, but his imagery is explosive and provocative. Sal’s work blends lore from the Catholic Church and sexual subcultures. In the last year Sal has been creating larger works filled with fantastical wet dream type of compositions. Sal fills his canvases with hard bodied figures performing a slew of sexual acts. One fantastic thread painting depicts the devil in a hellscape - angels look down from heaven to see the devil teach a leather daddy “how to to be a good dom.” ​Though Sal’s figures are engaging in kinky activities, they are rendered as masterfully and tenderly as Jesus and the dead are in Michalangelo’s “The Last Judgement.” Sal also approaches the fetish objects in his work as religious iconography, a can of crisco can symbolize the inevitable or a ball-gag can the restriction of speech. 

These thread paintings are almost like divine intervention for Sal. Sal, who was studying to be a priest at one time speaks passionately about religion. “The Catholic Church is one of the largest BDSM groups in the world - there’s so much torture and pain in Catholosism. I used to think ‘what a sick mind I have’ but now I believe if God didn’t want me to have these thoughts then why would he put them in my head? I listen to God, he talks to me while I work, he tells me what color to use - what shape of the body to use.” 

Even the act of thread painting is a mixture of pleasure and pain, pushing and pulling a thick needle through brightly colored threads and canvas. Even the meditative and repetitive nature of needlepoint is close to prayer. Sal is completely devoted to his craft, he has poured thousands of hours into his work. His clarity of vision, attention to detail and strong voice make these thread paintings truly transcendent. 

4.7.20 — 4.8.20

Curated by Hadley Vogel and Abby Lloyd

East Hampton Shed on Wheels

'Ashes to Lashes, Dust to Lust', Group Show at GROVE, Berlin

'Victim of Cosmetics' by Claire Barrow in a repurposed office space, London

'Digital Anomalies' by Nicolás Lamas at FORM, Wageningen

'IT'S DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN SO I STAY QUIET' by Lukas Glinkowski at Galería Fran R

'The place that can never be' by Anna Taganzeva at Plague Space, Krasnodar

'Chocolate Goblin' by Travis John Ficarra at Glasshouse, Victoria

'MILITARY POP', Group Show at Spas Setun, Moscow

TARGET GROUP SHOW, conceived by Hannes Schmidt at BRAUNSFELDER, Cologne

'DISTIRA' by Irati Inoriza at Galeria Fran Reus, Palma de Mallorca

'Underground Memorandum' by Richard Nikl at Shore, Vienna

'All Watched Over by Emissaries of Loving Grace' by Louis Morlæ at Duarte Sequeir

'itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog' by Amanda Moström, Rose Easton, London

'Deceiving players' by Rimma Arslanov at KOENIG2 by_robbygreif, Vienna

'Sizzling Hot' by Rosa Lüders at 14a, Hamburg

'The Particular Matter of a Pisces Rug' by Kelly Kaczynski at Weatherproof, Chica

'L’oracolo' by Michele Cesaratto at MURKA, Florence

'The Tiler' by Trevor Bourke at Afternoon Projects, Vancouver

'Whaleboat' by Zukhra Salakhova at Daipyat gallery, Voronezh

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