Artists: Chico Tabibuia - Paulus de Groot

The Gallery of Everything presents COCKY: FROM THE DIVINE TO THE EROTIC, a survey of aroused physical manhood. From the carved phallic deities of Chico Tabibuia (1936 - 2007), to the abstracted hardcore of Paulus de Groot (b 1977), COCKY is an investigation into the male taboo.

Drawing on Afro-Brazilian Umbanda and Pentecostal Christian beliefs, Tabibuia’s figurations of the deities of myth represent the indigenous beings known as Exus. In Umbanda, the Exus are associated with sexuality, fertility and strength, proclaiming an impressive and divine erotic.

De Groot began his artistic practice at Atelier Herenplaats, a Rotterdam studio which champions artists with disabilities. De Groot’s tactile paintings depict a fully-operational interior life, replete with hopes, fears, and above all, desires. They are part erotic dream-diary, part fictional autobiography.

From here, COCKY explores its obsession in depth. A rarely seen inclusion are the unearthly Woodbridge Figures, revered for their mythic backstory and removable genitalia. These against self-pleasuring watercolours by Dean Henry, personal exposures by George Grosz, protest penis paintings by Michael-Patterson Carver.