The Gay Highwaymen

Series by JoJo Mendoco
Opening Reception July 5th, 2013. 7 – 10pm
Closing Reception: August 30, 2013. 7 – 10pm
At The Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission Street, San Francisco, California.
In the exhibit “Doing Your Dirty Work: A Sampler of Contemporary Art about Sex”

Do You Give a Flying Fuck?
Well, do you? And should you?
What matters to any of us and why?

Images of flying penises decorate High School boys’ rooms across the globe. Anthropomorphic phalluses also appear in the sacred and secular imagery of many cultures and have been among the most historically wide-spread cross-cultural icons. Even cave-men drew hard dicks.

Obviously sexually provocative in its intent, D.Y.G.A.F.F.? also jabs at contemporary society, culture and politics. Drawing literally and figuratively on the detritus of post-industrial consumerism, the images of the “flying fucks” are placed on U.S.P.S. stickers, paint chips, postcards, bar coasters, linoleum samples and other throw-away surfaces. Images from the series also show up once in a while in certain public mens’ rooms, when the artist makes a rare foray from his Mendocino County mountain sanctuary.

Stylistically, JoJo Mendoco draws on the history of homoerotic artists such as Etienne, Tom of Finland, the Hun, Mike Caffee, Chuck Arnett, etc as well as being influenced by Cartoons, Yaoi Bara Manga and Pop, Dada, Surrealist and Street Art traditions. His work always includes words as well as drawings, and often incorporates collage and photography on a variety of found surfaces.

JoJo Mendoco was born September 11, 1991, one of a pair of identical twin boys, to expatriate drop-out hippie academics. Their mother was a botanist and their father a computer scientist. He and his brother Leo grew up on a marijuana farming compund on Spyrock, in the mountains of Mendocino County. The pivotal event of his childhood happened on his 10th birthday, when his family was visiting NYC. His parents and his brother perished at Ground Zero, and he was left scarred and with ongoing physical and psychological issues. Twelve years later, he seldom leaves the sanctuary of the family’s mountain enclave, only emerging for night-time forays to the City to draw things on walls and fuck things under the bridges and freeway ramps.

Group Exhibits:
2013​ Doing Your Dirty Work: A Sampler of Contemporary Art about Sex
​At The Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco, CA
2012​ Tough Love: A Half-Century of Masculine Homoerotic ​Imagery from the San Francisco Bay Area.
​At The Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco, CA

Selected Private Collections:
Mike Caffee, Peter Fiske, C. Jacob Hale, Dave Grappone, Terri Gillentine, Jeremy Novy, Gene Rigler and Chris Murray and J.a.M. Tackitt-Jones.