BARBARA NITKE

American Ecstasy

Inaugural opening on February 14th, 2024

Storage APT
On The Bowery
Please email info@storageartgallery.com for exhibition address

Storage is pleased to announce a new project space, Storage APT (Art Presentation Template), unveiling on The Bowery on February 14th, 2024.

Storage APT invites Barbara Nitke (b. 1950), whose photographs elucidate a female gaze in the male-dominated adult film industry of the 80s in Downtown New York City. Inaugurating the space on Valentine’s Day, the exhibition reveals elegant and spiritual connections between adult actors, in color photographs taken in downtown New York of the 1980s.

• Events

  Please email info@storageartgallery.com to RSVP.

  Old School Slide Show
  Thursday, March 21st from 6-8pm

  Barbara Nitke presents an intimate slide show of images from her 1980s American Ecstasy photo series. She will be projecting the slides with a Kodak Carousel projector onto the walls of Storage APT.

  Porn Dinner
  Saturday, March 30th from 6-8pm

  Storage APT holds a special viewing of restored clips from the Golden Age of Porn with Casey Scott of Vinegar Syndrome, a company providing expert restoration and public distribution for hundreds of rare and forgotten cult films. Scott and artist Barbara Nitke discuss the movies compared to the photographs of the exhibition. A Porn Dinner of Soggy Baked Ziti Buffet follows the discussion.

  Porn Roundtable
  Thursday, April 4th from 6-8pm

  Please join us for an in depth conversation (live at Storage APT and hosted virtually on Zoom) about the value of pornography to society and what is lost when it is censored. Barbara Nitke is joined by Kirin Wachter-Grene, PhD in African American literature and gender and sexuality studies; Keren Moscovitch, PhD in visual arts and practicing artist; Alexis Heller, MA and curator specializing in LGBTQ issues; and Veronica Vera, DHS, former porn star and sexuality writer.

  View the Recorded Roundtable Here

  Porn Dessert
  Saturday, April 20th from 6-8pm

  Barbara Nitke presents a slideshow of images from American Ecstasy, offering a behind-the-scenes look at life on porn sets in New York City in the 1980s. This event follows up the Old School Slide Show, presented in March. Porn Dessert featuring Entenmann's Chocolate Covered Donuts will be served.

• About Barbara Nitke

  Barbara Nitke (b. 1950, Virginia) is a photographer whose focus spans from behind-the-scenes of hardcore porn sets to constructed narratives and portraiture. Nitke’s work is found in collections including the Kinsey Institute, IN; The New Hampshire Institute of Art, NH; Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland; Leather Archives and Museum, IN; Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, NY; and the Museum of Sex, NY. Nitke has been shown nationally and internationally. Selections of her work are collected in two monographs, Kiss of Fire: A Romantic View of Sadomasochism (introduction by A. D. Coleman) (2003) and American Ecstasy (introduction by Arthur C. Danto) (2012). Nitke is self taught in photography, having studied literature and philosophy at Baruch College, City University of New York. She has been on the faculty of School of Visual Arts since 1992.