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Anonymous artist Alphachanneling has created a body of work that confronts cultural taboo in its unapologetic, raw celebration of sexuality. The artwork exists in a dreamy utopia where the carnal and spiritual merge into scenes that are both reverent and unrestrained — each piece is a visual love letter to desire, pleasure, and human connection that illuminates the intersection between the playful and the holy. The artwork feels kinetic, like a living prayer to the erotic divine; rapturous renderings of the fundamental spirit that compels and drives us toward life.

Alphachanneling (both the artist and the work itself) reflects a practice of elevating sublime experience over ego — which is to say, the artist’s personal identity remains a secret. “It’s not that I choose to be anonymous so people think I’m mysterious and interesting,” the artist explained when speaking to SuperRare, “I just think when you know anything about the identity of the person who’s telling the story, it inevitably changes how you perceive the work. The subject of eroticism and sexuality is universally relatable, but we actually relate to it so personally…putting my identity as a person into the mix feels like it would inescapably dilute and muddy how people intimately connect to the work. Each person has their own inner landscape of love and desire, I hope my art can encourage the honoring and celebration of that space. ”

It’s an approach that doesn’t seem to have mitigated Alphachanneling’s ability to forge a community and a following around their work and its ever-captivating subject matter. With a fanatical social media audience of nearly 1.5 million followers, the elusive artist manages to be both invisible and massively present at the same time. 

But Alphachanneling’s creative ecosystem of ecstatic meditations extends far beyond social media. 

In the way that only the most astutely paradoxical art can, Alphachanneling’s work has found a strong foothold in a wide range of spaces. From rappers to yoga influencers, sex workers to art critics, these artworks have been tattooed onto bodies and reproduced onto protest signs. The wide-reaching enthusiasm for Alphachanneling’s art and the endlessly diverse composition of their fanbase are expressions of the essential truth at the core of this work: there is immense profundity in the profane, and when art brings this to the surface, everyone in the room feels it.

Alphachanneling was featured as one of Vogue’s Top 100 Creative Influencers, had original art published in Playboy, and had work reviewed by art critic Jerry Saltz in Vulture. Alphachanneling has been profiled in Vice, Juxtapoz, Paper Magazine, The Washington Post, HuffPost, and more. Gallery exhibition locations have included New York City, Los Angeles, Sydney, Melbourne, Copenhagen, Antwerp, Mykonos, among others. 

“a mesmerizing dive into the ways we imagine and think about sex” – Vice Creators Project 

“a vision, a fecund sense of color and line, internal scale, odd order, and saucy subject matter.” – Jerry Saltz

“a dreamy world of soft psychedelic sexuality where brilliant lotus flowers burst from the tips of candy-colored penises” – The Washington Post 

ARTIST STATEMENT 

The inspiration driving my art is the premise that desire is an expression of the divine, and therefore something to exalt and celebrate in all its forms. In the same way that a plant turns towards the sun, I believe my desire turns me on to that which nourishes me and makes me grow. 

The poetry of Rumi has been a big influence on me, it’s shown me that art can simply be praise and an expression of joy and love. One can repeat what’s already been said a thousand times, and the deeper and more sincerely it is expressed, the more its value increases. I draw my influences from a wide range of sources both high and low, from mysticism and the occult to folk art, outsider art and indigenous art, from kink and bdsm to yoga, tantra, and the healing arts. 

My work has a kind of double nature that makes it confusing to define. It is as delicate and innocent as it is dirty and confrontational. Rather than being modest and subtle, I am overt and explicit with the sexuality in my art, but I like to deliver that provocation in the most gentle, graceful and reverential way. 

I believe eroticism in art can help normalize the natural sexuality that we experience as humans, but yet struggle to find social and cultural acknowledgment of. Erotic art can allow us to explore sexuality and desire in a way that feels safe and approachable and exposes us to a spectrum that may be new and unknown in our experience of our lives. Erotic art expands the language of love and sexuality and reminds us of the beauty of being alive, the beauty of living as a sexual being. 

No one voice can represent the whole range of experience so my hope is that the more we individually embrace and express the desire which compels our lives, the richer and fuller our collective identity can become. My artwork is an invitation for each viewer to bring forth the dream of their own erotic worlds.