With a cornucopia of pert butts and male appendages of heft, ¡°Reality & Fantasy: The World of Tom of Finland,¡± currently on display at Shibuya Parco¡¯s Gallery X in Tokyo, is a celebration of transgression, lust, emotional and physical connection.
The artist Tom of Finland¡¯s real name, Touko Valio Laaksonen (1920-91), may not be well-known in Japan, but the iconography that he helped popularize ¡ª leather vests and captain¡¯s caps, handlebar moustaches and biker jackets ¡ª has become embedded in the global public consciousness as a defining style of butch gayness both in and out of the LGBTQ community.
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