Spike Art Magazine #84 Vulgarity

For Summer 2025, Spike is getting freaky with the truest image of our time: Vulgarity. In a moment when moral offense refers less to the ass-scratching of uncultured commoners than the rulelessness of our ruling classes – whether auctioning off public office via shitcoin or bombing all of Gaza’s hospitals – what possibilities are open to art to disclose new aesthetics, new sensations, new truths? Featuring essays by critic Dean Kissick on AI images as the new folk art and historian Quinn Slobodian on the roots of political shamelessness; definitions of vulgarity from curator Daniel Baumann, artist Bruce LaBruce, and architect Jack Self, among others; Philippa Snow vibing with the Cinema of Transgression’s piss-off nihilism; a conversation between R.I.P. Germain and fellow artist Hannah Black; portraits of artists Hamishi Farah, Christelle Oyiri, and Philipp Timischl; Hans-Jürgen Hafner’s corronation of 1980s Germany’s best dick paintings; Francesco Tenaglia taking a whiff of Rob Pruitt’s felonous 1998 installation Cocaine Buffet; speculation on the bleeding edge of shitcoins by artist-writer-gallerist Jared Madere; Spike editor Isabella Zamboni feeling the provocations of 90s Benetton billboard ads all over again; British chef Jago Rackham eating funnel cake at a very American car race; Amanda Fortini taking in the real Las Vegas; and Tea Hačić-Vlahović on what separates being a hot girl from wanting to fuck one. Cover image: Jared Madere