Pacifico Silano: Psychosexual Thriller | Island Gallery
Pacifico Silano (born 1986, USA). The Shadows, 2024. UV laminated archival pigment prints mounted on museum boxes, (12) 20 x 16 x 1.5 inches each (Edition of 3). Courtesy of the artist and Island Gallery. © Pacifico Silano
Written by: Trip Avis
Pacifico Silano reminds us that erotica can be more than tantalizing—it can be nostalgic and inspiring while holding nuanced and revealing perspectives on the era that produced it. The title Psychosexual Thriller draws to mind names like Brian De Palma and Adrian Lyne and films like Body Double and Fatal Attraction. While the images have a seductive and unsettling quality that recalls the genre, Silano sets his work apart with an unabashed queerness that transcends erotica; it becomes something historically and culturally informative.
Pacifico Silano (born 1986, USA). Black Leather Jacket, 2024. Dye sublimation print in lacquered artist frame, 51 x 41 inches (Edition of 3). Courtesy of the artist and Island Gallery. © Pacifico Silano
Pacifico Silano (born 1986, USA). Likeness 2024. Dye sublimation print in lacquered artist frame, 41 x 31 inches (Edition of 3). Courtesy of the artist and Island Gallery. © Pacifico Silano
Drawing from an extensive collection of vintage gay pornographic magazines, Silano reimagines images once meant to sate and inspire fantasies and uses them to explore desire, identity, and queer history and culture.Erotica is as psychologically revealing as it is aesthetic or pleasurable. What entices us tells us about our desires, something as personal and nuanced as a fingertip.
Pacifico Silano (born 1986, USA). Body Heat, 2024. Dye sublimation print in lacquered artist frame, 51 x 41 inches (Edition of 3). Courtesy of the artist and Island Gallery. © Pacifico Silano
With a grainy composition reminiscent of Ben-Day dot printing and a title straight out of De Palma’s oeuvre, Body Heat is an exercise in tantalization. Silano closely crops the image around the navel and lower abdomen of the model, the sparse sagittal hair—or colloquial happy trail—merging with the pubic hair below. The photograph suggests what hangs beneath the image but never fully delivers; it leaves more to the imagination, further fueling the viewer’s fantasies. The water or sweat droplets dotting the torso mirror the image’s grain, texturing the otherwise bare, tanned skin. It suggests a body in exertion—in what activity, the viewer can decide for themselves.
Pacifico Silano (born 1986, USA). Power Play, 2024. Dye sublimation print in lacquered artist frame, 51 x 41 inches (Edition of 3). Courtesy of the artist and Island Gallery. © Pacifico Silano
In Power Play, Silano cheekily subverts the sense of authority suggested by government uniforms. Rather than adorning the head of a self-righteous cop, a police peaked cap is placed on a model’s hairless, tan-lined bum. The hat’s placement is suggestive beyond a casual playfulness; it encourages a dialogue between viewer and image. Could it be a statement on homophobia? Is anal sex being policed? Perhaps it is commenting on the cultural and bedroom politics between those who identify as tops or bottoms. Or it could simply be a fun way to be sexy while poking the finger at oppressive authority figures. The message is fluid; it could be any or none of these reasons. What is essential, however, is that the image gets you thinking
Pacifico Silano (born 1986, USA). The Swimmer, 2024. Dye sublimation print in artist frame, 41 x 31 inches each (Edition of 3). Courtesy of the artist and Island Gallery. © Pacifico Silano
““Trojan horses that are seductive on the surface [-] the longer you sit with them the more complex they become.””
With Psychosexual Thriller, Pacifico Silano presents the queer thinking man’s erotica. It becomes less about bodies or poses, what is seen or not seen, and more about how we engage with the work; what we perceive as the message says more about us than it does about the images themselves.
Pacifico Silano (born 1986, USA). Shapeshifter, 2024 (left). Dye sublimation print on silk, 55 x 90 inches. Body Double, 2024 (center). Dye sublimation print, plexiglass, and wooden pedestal, 30 x 40 x 28 inches. American Whore, 2024 (right). Phototex , 24 x 83.
Courtesy of the artist and Island Gallery. © Pacifico Silano.
Perhaps this is where the psychological element—the psycho in psychosexual—comes into play. With its opaque, malleable meaning, Silano’s project beguiles, excites, and cofounds; it stimulates the mind as any worthwhile fantasy should.
