![Constanza Pulit: Bajo la luna, Entre las Flores [Under the Moon, Among
the Flowers], 2023. © The Artist. Courtesy of Richard Saltoun London, Rome and New York.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbroadsheet-main-bucket.storage.googleapis.com%2Fmedia%2Fcache%2F9a%2F69%2F9a6968ad73affc291e760223e69deb96.jpg&w=1280&q=100)
![Mimi Benoit Parent: La proue surréaliste [The surrealist prowe], 1964. © The Estate of Mimi Benoit Parent. Courtesy of Richard Saltoun London, Rome and New York.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbroadsheet-main-bucket.storage.googleapis.com%2Fmedia%2Fcache%2F2e%2Feb%2F2eeb58db6d7a93f85653222c64523073.jpg&w=1280&q=100)
Unveiled Desires: Fetish & The Erotic in Surrealism, 1880–Today is a two-part exhibition series that aims to shine a light on the surrealist movement’s overlooked artists: namely, women and queer people. After its first instalment proved a hit for Mayfair’s Richard Saltoun gallery, the second chapter will delve deeper into how these artists used eroticism to engage with the subconscious.
“Eroticism and fetish are such important parts of surrealism, especially from the female perspective. But it's not something that’s been platformed in a major way,” Maudji Mendel, the curator of the exhibition and art director at the charity Rediscovering Art by Women (RAW), tells Broadsheet.
The exhibition places new works commissioned from contemporary artists next to works produced more than 100 years ago, a curation choice intended by Mendel to create a dialogue between the surrealism of the 20th and 21st centuries.
A contemporary female nude by Síomha Harrington, seen from below with a playful yet provocative gaze, has been placed next to another female nude surrounded by decapitated male heads by Suzanne Van Damme from 1941.
“Although Harrington’s is not a direct response to Van Damme’s, both works show a woman artist reclaiming agency and putting something on a canvas which is undeniably meant to provoke the patriarchy,” Mendel says.
Other artists include pioneering avant-garde Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, who was deeply connected to surrealist art, creating provocative garments in collaboration with artists like Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. Also on display are 20th-century works by German-born Swiss artist and photographer Méret Oppenheim and Belgian painter Jane Graverol – as well as contemporary paintings by British-Israeli model and artist Tali Lennox (daughter of Annie Lennox).
“There's definitely been a return to surrealism, largely due to the instability of the current global and political climate,” Mendel says. “Eroticism has always been a tool for resistance against waves of conservatism, which are being felt globally.”
When these waves appear, “Galleries and museums tend to play it safe because they’re worried about funding or selling. So, it felt like it was really important to actually platform these artists at this moment,” she says.
The first half of the exhibition, focused on fetish, was incredibly popular, with a huge number of people through the doors.
Mendel hopes that the second half, which switches focus to erotic desire, will allow visitors to explore “female desire, fantastical scenes, and the psychic landscape of repressed identity”.
She stresses that the show was never meant to provoke people. “When you say the words ‘fetish’ and ‘erotic,’ people immediately think of something very explicit. But actually, it refers to a very legitimate cultural wave of thinking about important political topics and questions around the expression of the self and sexuality and identity,” she says.
“There’s definitely a big appetite to see this slightly more subversive type of show, so I'm very interested to see what the feedback will be for the second part.”
Unveiled Desires II: Erotic Surrealism – Identity, Desire and the Body runs from January 13 to February 28, 2026.
