The relevance of muses, famed inspirations for artists like Picasso, Jeff Koons, and Salvador Dali, seems to be contested in our current century. Since the Guerilla Girls’ campaign – “Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met Museum” in 1989, there continues to be a lot of talk about how women often are transformed into art and whether this still is important art historically in our current times, when gender equality is of paramount importance. Artist Sean Go, an emerging artist from the Philippines, explores this theme critically and playfully, with an art-historical bent.
For artist Sean Go, who studies the human condition in his pop art, muses are juxtaposed with Salvador Dali-like and Willy Wonka-styled candies and chocolate to document and perhaps to satirically show innate desires of humans when it comes to projecting fantasies with beautiful figures. With “Candy Factory” featuring model Ana Lizana, Go’s flying candies and larger than life sugary-treats depict sweet curiosity and wonder, feelings of joy often associated with pleasure. Repetition and disorganized candy clusters, in Lichtenstein dots and Rauschenberg paint strokes are applied, in creating this idea of the industrial processes behind the commodification of products, which include candy – a universal symbol with delightful and childlike connotations, but also implying gluttony and lack of self-discipline.
Candy Factory, featuring model Ana Lizana, Mixed Media 2023
With “Eve”, featuring model Agata Katerina, Go’s inflatable snakes and Greco-Roman statues challenge the idea of worship, adornment, and temptation, classical themes that will never go out of date regardless of our social circumstances. The piece alludes to the story of Adam and Eve, with serpents representing sin and the precursor to the fall of humankind from grace. Go’s “Gummy” with model Brandy Gordon shows in neon colors lavish and praise for female curves, yet also subtly hint at the fetishization of women’s bodies and the dangers of a commercial system that heavily markets sexuality and sensuality ubiquitously. With such sharp colors and bold iconography, Go’s works are parody and satirical, while holding meanings that capture societal adoration and rage in the 21st century.
Eve, featuring model Agata Katerina, and Gummy, featuring model Brandy Gordon, Mixed Media 2022
Go’s works allude to the debate of appreciation or objectification of women, which often has a blurry line. With Go, who has been called the Andy Warhol of the Philippines, consumerism, kitsch, and capitalist production themes are often at the background, hidden yet made so clear when the stories of his work are analyzed more critically. Like Warhol’s work, Go is fascinated with the glamour and at times the illusion of concepts that we romanticize, such as beauty, nostalgia, and perfection. Go’s Triple Elvis Lobster, featuring Eleni Efstathiadis, was showcased at Jakarta’s 1 New Art Museum in Indonesia for Jakarta Art Moments 2022, as well as Indoseni’s Wave to the Moon Exhibit in 2022 in the Mall of Indonesia in Jakarta.
Go’s Tender Juicy Hotdog, featuring model Anastasia Irene, plays on the idea of colonial mentality and desire in less economically developed countries like the Philippines, where Go is from, and where white beauty is often adored and glamorized. Ads for skin whitening, beauty treatments, and a Western-euro American ideals of beauty are pushed onto Filipinos, who naturally do not have fair skin. This contrast with Pure Foods Tender Juicy Hotdog, an iconic snack in the Philippines, shows how this consumption of a western fairytale is so widespread, and perhaps the artificiality of it, much like the red food coloring of the hot dogs, deserves a second look, or at least, a deeper investigation. Go’s reappropriation of colonial ideologies is what sparked his career early on in 2021.
Tender Juicy, featuring model Anastasia Irene, Mixed Media 2022
Artist Sean Go’s works are in dialogue with the works of Jeff Koons, particularly the Triple Elvis series and Made in Heaven series, in their sexual and sensual subjects. For Go, his works have hints of art historical debates sprinkled in the composition of the pieces. In doing so, Go is re-appropriating past masterpieces with his own twist. It’s ridiculous that lobsters are being sexualized, but the capitalist industrialist complex turns everything into something that can be bought and sold. For artist Sean Go, who is primarily known for his Mickey paintings such as the Playmouse (Playboy + Mickey Mouse) and the Mousefather (Mickey Mouse + Godfather), his bubble gum pop surreal imaginings of human lust, desire, and beauty, within the context of sexualized media production, plays to the theme that today, sex does indeed sell.
Go’s journey of exploring art is continuing in Paris, where he is obtaining a Master’s of Arts in Fashion from the Parson’s School of Design (Class of 2025). Go also studied at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where he also received a Master of Art in Art Market Studies (2022). Go’s degree count stands at 8, which includes a total of 5 full-time master’s degrees and 3 Bachelor’s degrees from highly ranked universities like Columbia (Class of 2021, GSAPP MSRED), Emory (Class of 2019, MBA/JM in Law ), and UC Berkeley (Class of 2015, Triple Degree in Business, Economics, Geography). Prior to Go’s work as an artist, he worked in finance, consulting, and accounting, even founding several companies. Retroactively, we can see how his experience in the commercial sphere serves as inspiration for his creativity. With strong ties to art historical capitals of the world, we hope that Go continues to explore the human condition, glamorous or not, and brings into the forefront questions of objectification or adoration, and whether these dichotomies are inherently “good or bad.”
Triple Elvis, featuring model Eleni Efstathiadis, Mixed Media 2021
Artist Sean Go in Paris
