JWAN YOSEF

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

Attitude speaks to artist Jwan Yosef about his new book Intimacies , as well as sex, art, and co-parenting with Ricky Martin

Words Jamie Tabberer

Howl, Oil on Acrylic Glass, 48 x 38 cm, 2024

IT’S NOT A chest, not a butt, it’s not a torso — it’s a butt-chin,” says artist Jwan Yosef in his charming, beautifully polite speaking manner. “It’s fun for me to abstract body parts of mine that aren’t necessarily initially sexualised. In that context, it’s fun to play and discover your own body in painting.”

The Syrian-born, Swedish-patriated creative is telling me about his self-portrait series Cave, and suffice to say, the 40-year-old is rocking my artistic world and broadening my sexual horizons: I’d never noticed how the humble chin dimple — preferably a really deep, pronounced one with a smattering of stubble on it — indeed looks like a “hole to fill”.

“What I wanted to do was effectively just superimpose this tiny, tiny piece of my face, but also it becomes an object that looks penetrative,” he explains. “I wanted to play with the idea of, it’s something you could finger or possibly, you know, penetrate.”

That Cave and much of the work in Yosef’s new book Intimacies prompt the viewer to think about sex in new, exciting ways is testament to his talent, but also his study: he holds an MFA from Central Saint Martins, London, and a BFA from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, where he studied plastic arts.

Intimacies is at once gloriously homoerotic (college-era hazing rituals, mischievously cropped blow-job scenes) and curiously restrained: think gentle lines and muted colour palettes. “My awareness of sex positivity is super strong,” he tells me. “I don’t really separate the person, the sex, the art, the practice. It all just kind of gets mushed together.”

Here, the LA-based artist — who has four children with pop icon ex-husband, ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ singer Ricky Martin — talks juggling work and parenthood, the presence of queerness in his art, and the rugby player ex whose “towering legs” inspired one of the book’s most striking works…

Congratulations on the book. How does it feel to be sharing it with the world?

Thank you. I am so excited! It’s been so great, and we’ve been working on this for nearly a year, from our first meeting until the actual book in hand, which has been incredible. Super fun. Stressful at first, but exciting in the end.

How did you settle on the name?

Intimacies was initially a working title. The whole idea with the book, even though it’s a monograph, wasn’t supposed to be a full review of my work. I wanted to focus on a more solid theme that has been ongoing throughout my practice for the last 15–20 years. ‘Intimacies’ was the perfect descriptive word to work with. And I think when we actually had the final book, selection and edit back in November, and when [editor] Matthew Holroyd put the whole final edit in front of me, it was super clear that it had to just remain as Intimacies.