Artist, Curator, Director of The Veqtor Helix Studios

“Erotic Grotesque Nonsense”

Jade XX is a Northern California based interdisciplinary artist whose work explores themes of deviancy, sexuality, and tribulations of mentality. Working across many mediums such as painting, printmaking, photography, performance, and installation, she uses her versatility to highlight underrepresented voices and challenge societal taboos. With a background in sex work activism, Jade’s practice often focuses on the complexities of internal and external pain of desire through an erotica-forward lens. She has curated exhibitions that examine human intimacy and allows accessible conversations about sexual liberation, mental health, censorship and the politicization of sex work.

“My art possesses an acute experience with fetishism and mental health awareness that seeks to investigate their abstractions knowing both expressions are considered deplorable. Allowing the reflection of discomfort and desire to be in a dichotomy of pain, fear, and distress while simultaneously showcasing eroticism, pleasure, and love. The images I often emulate are women in bondage, wearing latex, confined, and receiving pain whether physical or cognitive. This envelopes traditional erotica art emphasizing in kink culture with additional radical acceptance of the state of mind. The unorthodox nature of my work shows that fear of sex in our very conservative world denies our innate needs of sensual and mental experiences. These factors are important to the execution of my work by reclaiming autonomy of sexuality while also allowing the feelings of disillusionment caused by my consistent erratic nature. I use photos in the erotic genre and self portraiture to appropriate references to fit new molds for the subject of my works by combining carnality and virulence of emotions.”