The Artist Sex Worker Artist Show

Pennie Key
Pennie Key (she/her/they/them) creates performances, installations, photographic and sonorous works that emerge from her lived experiences performing various forms of sex work and practicing martial arts. Pennie exhibits a sound piece titled, “Subjectification”. This intimate audio piece details the types of men Pennie has encountered through sex work. Through the simple gesture of description and listing, the work allows the listener to explore the complexities of sex work as well as preconceived notions of the sex worker/client relation and the structures of power therein.

Levi Jacobs
All of Levi Jacobs (He/him) works have something to do with the body. The art that Levi creates stems directly from his lived experience. Wether it is reclaiming nude photographs that were spread throughout the internet without his consent by creating a carpet, or casting his tongue and asking you to eat it whole, he is a creative that walks a very thin line between his personal life and that which becomes art for the public. This tension between public and private that the creative process can entail is something Levi finds intrinsic to sex work. 

Xenia Klein
Xenia Klein (she/her) practice includes photography, installation, performance and poetry to explore her own experiences and identities. In the past year, she has began to do escorting as her main source of income and her artistic pursuits have been both influenced and changed by her new priorities. Xenia is a force of dedication and attention, her energies are plural and wide with the bandwidth to hold space for and with the de-stigmatization of sex work as care labor.

Máxima and Vincent Riebeek
Vincent Riebeek (he/him) is a choreographer, dancer and theater maker. Máxima (Victoria Caram) is a political activist, published author, cosmetic doctor, and sex worker on various levels, and cultural producer. What is most compelling about Máxima  and Vincent Riebeek’s collaboration for this show is how their individual dedications to the de-stigmatization of sex work, artistic production and activism come together from a truly beautiful, supportive and dynamic relationship. 

Kaiden Ford
Kaiden Ford (they/them) is a sex worker, poet, dancer and performance artist. Throughout all of Kaiden’s endeavors, it is clear they harness the power of self-discovery and exploration. Kaiden sees a space in the pornography market for a shift in story-telling. Emblazoned by a highly toned and individual sense of the aesthetic, Kaiden dances and performs to not only shift and get to know his own perceptions, but hopefully yours as well.

Jet Moon
Jet Moon is a multi-disciplinary artist who creates intimate spaces of visibility and sharing, most often working outside of traditional art spaces. Jet is a multi-disciplinary artist who writes, performs and collaborates on fierce work for radical social change. Usually within the LGBTIQ, kink, sex worker, disability and survivor communities they belong to.

Text: Zachary Schoenhut

On the opening we had performances by Kaiden Ford, Xiomara Virdo, Nelly Dansen, Aryelle Freeman Hopelezz, Jean-Paul Paula, Lilith the Ville, Vincent Riebeek & Máxima.

During the workshop day on the 10th of September, multiple artists provided workshops surrounding sexuality, erotica and sexwork. Chandler Smith gave a workshop on photography for sexworkers, Honey a workshop spirituality and sexwork for starting and wannabe sexworkers, Vincent Riebeek and Máxima a workshop about chemsex, Levi Jacobs about electro pleasure, Demonia Yeguaza a dance workshop Senxuality (an ode to sensuality and eroticism), Jet Moon a workshop about the interwoven topics of work, disability and sexuality, and Pennie Key gave a lecture about the representation of sexworkers in Hollywood films.

The exhibition The Artist Sex Worker Artist Show was made possible with the generous support of Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst (AFK)

De Volkskrant has written an article about the exhibition, read it here. (Dutch)