The first Saturday of April, I dropped by the Castro's stylish little hotspot for art, Femina Potens Gallery, to check out the opening reception of their current show, Neu Wave Feminism, which runs through April 27th, 2008. As one might have expected, the small space was noisy, high energy, and packed with cute young hipsters and older folks alike. The founder and curator of Femina Potens Gallery, bondage model and up-and-coming Feminist porn mogul Madison Young, was there mingling with the crowd. For someone who runs numerous high profile web sites and was the recent recipient of a Feminist Porn Award for Hottest Kink Film, Young came off as refreshingly mellow and approachable. Her other accomplishments aside, as owner of Femina Potens she has a lot to smile about--she has curated one hell of a show this month.

In promos, Neu Wave Feminism describes itself as an art show in which "three feminist artists explore identity, gender, and sexuality." This description fails to hint at the intensity of this mixed media tour de force. The artists responsible for this, in the best sense of the phrase, are former commercial photographer Jenny Rocksusto, papercut artist Lex McQuilkin, and traditional oil painter of jarring contemporary images Alicia DeBrincat. Each of these artists could easily hold their own in a solo show. Presented together in Neu Wave Feminism, they serve up a powerhouse of an art show.

Jenny Rocksusto

In poster-sized photos, as seductively lush and glossy as any Vogue spread, Rocksusto makes the intimate territory of sex and body a jarringly public affair. In one photo, the viewer is confronted with a pregnant woman's torso, slathered in paint, her breasts bound with standard-issue police handcuffs. As the viewer stares at the pregnant woman's nipples straining against the handcuffs, the image suggests fun and titillating S&M play, but also introduces sour flavors of authoritarianism, police brutality, and patriarchal control. In another large-scale piece, condoms fresh out of their wrappers are arranged on a chessboard. What are the opposing pieces on the chessboard? Egg yolks. It is unclear who will win this externalized reproductive game of strategy, but the effect is fresh and witty.

Joining Rocksusto's work is that of Lex McQuilkin, who is in full control of her highly original medium of choice. McQuilkin, a self-described "papercut artist," carves paper into delicate silhouettes and arranges these ephemeral lines, words, and images into intimate and sometimes layered compositions. In one striking piece, a young, mustachioed figure wears a partially transparent dress shirt. The transparent paper of the shirt allows the voyeur, err viewer, to look through the shirt to see the figure's breasts and taped nipples beneath her clothes. This striking paper construction quietly urges the viewer to meditate on the complex nature of appearance, assumptions, and gender.

Alicia DeBrincat

Rounding out this stunning show is the work of oil painter Alicia DeBrincat. DeBrincat's style evinces an impressive degree of technical mastery that is increasingly hard to come by in galleries these days. She seems confident in her paint handling, and her figures' flesh has a degree of lifelikeness that is positively eerie. In one large-scale nude, the realism of the veins in the woman's feet was nothing short of unnerving. The freshness of DeBrincat's work, however, lies in the marriage of traditional oil painting technique with brave portrayals of female identity such as the Old Masters never dished out. In one painting, a larger-than-life nude woman strikes a cheesy pin-up pose against a backdrop of lemons. She wears a beauty-queen-style sash that reads "Round Ripe Juicy Tart." It remains unnervingly ambiguous whether this phrase is referring to the lemons or to the woman herself. While her alluring pose and the lushness of her painted flesh encourage the viewer to objectify her with their stare, the unwavering directness and intelligence of her gaze halts the viewer in mid-ogle. If this woman is an object of desire, she is one who is fully in control of her power over those who would desire her. The piece broaches some interesting themes of voyeurism, sexuality, objectification, and control, yet at the same time the painting is undeniably eye candy. The result is both creepy and thought-provoking.

With Neu Wave Feminism, Femina Potens treats the public to an undeniably strong show. Rocksusto, McQuilkin, and DeBrincat, though working in quite dissimilar media, combine to present a notion of Feminism that has a strong, thoughtful voice and evinces a deliberate approach to art making. What with the rich history and highly-analyzed nature of Feminism, it would have been easy to fall back on clichéd images and ideas. But, thankfully, Neu Wave Feminism breaks fresh ground.

Neu Wave Feminism will be on view at Femina Potens through April 27th.