, whose paintings focus in on the storied legacy of Playboy bunnies and the palatial estates of Europe’s former aristocrats, respectively. Their paintings are animated by the same morbid fascination with things that have, though they have an objective aesthetic value, are haunted by sad and broken histories. “
BRACHE: I generate my own. For these recent ones I used A.I. I was referencing the older film stills and then making them look how I wanted using the aesthetic of the still itself. But the work is very cinematic in terms of storytelling and frames, in order to really capture a feeling.STOKŁOSA: Yes. It starts from this dark movie feeling, this foggy, shadowy aesthetic. Usually I use a brighter background and then recreate it on canvas.
STOKŁOSA: When you were talking about these beautiful images of the bunny costume, it reminded me of working with gay pornography, because I also paint these paintings with boys. It’s very similar because we have those very sexy, beautiful situations, but you know what is behind them. But I usually always use vintage porn for my work. And the interesting thing is that, at one time, that was the only place where you could see men kissing on screen, and it was accessible.
BRACHE: Yeah. Sometimes it depends on my mood, too. It’s like, “Today I’m tired of feeling objectified, and I feel all of this is violence, and I don’t like it.” But then other times, it’s like, “Oh,BRACHE: That’s normal. Nobody wants to be objectified all the time. I don’t enjoy that, but sometimes it feels nice to be an object of someone else’s affection.