SLAY IT AGAIN, SAM

Artist Sam Morris shows no inhibition in his exhibition

By Connor Davenport

Sam Morris is often called the modern-day Tom of Finland. Like his predecessor, Morris’s work is stylized, homoerotic fetish art that depicts the quintessential gay male. However, where Tom of Finland celebrated men with extreme muscular body types who were often performing aggressive sex acts, Morris’s work tends to focus on the handsome but relatable ‘boy next door’ gay man. “I aim to create an aesthetic that is romantic, yet sexy,” he explains. “My work invites viewers to fantasize over the man they have a crush on at work, or maybe the one who works at the local coffee shop or the DILF they are secretly following on social media.”

We caught up with the Berlin-based artist when he was in Miami a few months ago, exhibiting his work at Art Gaysel.

How would you define your unique take on gay eroticism? I use lots of different art mediums to explore the male form. At Art Gaysel, I showed some of my photographic prints, film work, paintings and sculptures. It was a pretty confronting exhibit with many different expressions of the body and sexuality.

What would you say is the most beautiful part of a man’s body? The penis. It’s where we place a lot of our power, shame, motivation, emotion and sexuality. It’s the hidden facet of each of us that we’re all dying to reveal.

You did a little exploration of your own in New York not that long ago, performing a poetry reading at Club Cumming. Yes, I opened with a piece by John Cage, 4.33, in which I got completely naked in silence. I then read a couple of poems, followed by a 20-minute talk on censorship and erotica. My being naked wasn’t a stunt…it was important to the message behind the essay.

Have you always felt so comfortable in your own skin? No, it took a long time to get where I am today.

What is one part of your body that you wish you could change? My teeth, but I’ve just started Invisalign, so hopefully that will change soon.

How has technology, social media and the hookup culture impacted your work? I’m a child of the internet, for sure. Social media has helped me connect my work with others.

How do you keep your followers engaged? I work very hard on producing the work I do and constantly sharing different parts of my work. I’m lucky that people want to see it.

Who are the men featured in your images? I shoot guys from all over the world.

How do you find them? I normally wait for them to get in touch with me via my socials, and then I see what they would like to explore on camera.

In the here and now, what is something your growing fan base would be surprised to learn about Sam Morris? When I was a child, I was in the final castings alongside Daniel Radcliffe to play Harry Potter.

That’s incredible! What new projects are you working on for 2020? I’m writing a one-man play, essentially expanding on what I did at Club Cumming, but this time a more narrative theatre experience. By the way, if you’d like to get a peek at the poetry reading I performed, I just shared a poem on my social media.

For more from Sam Morris, you can follow him on Instagram at www.instagram.com/justsammorris.