On The Wall: Two Fives in a Night, Part Two

Jorg Dubin's "SEATED TWINS" at the Peter Black Gallery

Erotica, generally speaking, is sex with all the gross scrubbed off, everything is glamorous and beautiful. Porn is sex with nothing but the gross, where body parts matter more than the people who own them. Both extremes fail to delve into the complicated, bittersweet reality of sex, the pathos and the comedy of it, the way that it can be beautiful and gross at the same time.

We've previously hyped Jorge Dubin's paintings of hard-livin', thirtysomething twin sisters, but we just can't hype him or his ladies enough. Dubin's latest, "SEATED TWINS," perches the ladies on an ottoman, both wearing sheer panties and unbuttoned shirts. They have their legs bent into porn star poses, but the lighting is unflattering and both women are anxiously gnawing their nails. Your heart goes out to them. They are not airbrushed, they have no script to act out, there's no smoky saxophone music to fill the awkward silence. They've just put themselves out there, vulnerable and wanting. They look like they're straining so hard to be sexy, and they have grave doubts it's working. Don't worry, ladies; it's working.

PETER BLAKE GALLERY
LOCATED AT 326 N. COAST HWY
LAGUNA BEACH CA 92651