Antebellum Gallery is small and intimate, which is appropriate, considering the subject matter housed within its walls. Out front, an attractive woman in a tuxedo checks my name on the guest list next to a sign that warns of unsuitability for the underage or easily offended.

In the past, gallery owner Rick Castro has curated shows that attempt to broach the subject of foot fetish in art, as well as bondage in Dia de los Muertos imagery. Tom of Finland has been represented here, as well as many lesser well-known “fetish” artists happy to find a home. Each exhibition is themed and many are seasonal. Castro smiles excitedly as he shared his plan for the upcoming Halloween show - “Splatter and Gore.”

This night, however, porn stars and misunderstood artists cruised past the salon-styled walls covered in images having to do with the fetishization of the automobile.

Automolove.

There were photographs from car shows - hot models in tiny shorts perched inside DeLorean hatchbacks or bending over the fire engine red hood of a Cadillac, their firm thighs a soft contrast to a chrome grill. Half-nude blondes stand up in Stingrays and climb flame-emblazoned Harleys. The cars themselves were parked out in a lot behind the gallery, being serenaded by Rockabilly bands singing about dirty sex.

“Crash” played below a cartoonish painting of a huge blond cheerleader tied to the hood of a Chevy. Remember the 1996 film about a community of people who find the crunch and catastrophe of a car wreck arousing? The video following was a bit more graphic, a bit more specific. I watched for two minutes as a man had sex with a keyhole to the trunk of some vintage automobile.

There were a few pieces in the show that were intriguingly subtle in comparison to the rollicking eroticism elsewhere. One image that seems to have been taken from one car into another, during the span of a red light, shows a young man looking at a magazine in the back seat. Upon inspection, it appears to be a porn magazine. I appreciated the voyeuristic nature of this image and the way it questions whether it is the subject or the viewer with the fetish.

A very beautiful illustration, called Hood Ornament, shows two chrome male figures engaged in fellatio with a pastoral landscape behind them. The style is reminiscent of art-deco - giving what would be very taboo imagery during that time a very classic feel.

Another piece was a photo montage that was digitally enhanced, depicting a tiger woman filling up her motorcycle at a gas station in some mountain town as she poses bare-breasted in front of the fuel pump. This is probably one of the more bizarre bits of imagery I have seen in a while, blurring many fetish forms while being altogether its own thing.

Ultimately, the show broadly covers the various sexual relationships to the automobile: first as an accessory, as a prop, then eventually as a participant, and ultimately as the object of desire itself - the very coital partner - the very foundation of automotive advertising we see every day.

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