For more than two decades, artist, photographer and cultural provocateur Slava Mogutin has been documenting queer life with an uncompromising eye. Now, a new exhibition at the Bob Mizer Foundation celebrates 25 years of his bold photographic practice with the aptly titled “Now Is a Good Time to Get Naked.”

The show brings together a powerful selection of Mogutin’s images — portraits that sit somewhere between intimate documentation and radical statement. His photographs are unapologetically raw: bodies stripped of shame, identities presented without filters, and moments of vulnerability captured with a rare sense of trust between artist and subject. The result is work that feels both deeply personal and politically charged.

Mogutin’s artistic journey has always been intertwined with activism. Born in Russia, he became a controversial figure in the 1990s for openly challenging state censorship and homophobia through his writing and art. After facing legal persecution, he ultimately sought political asylum in the United States — becoming one of the first Russians to receive asylum due to anti-gay discrimination. That history of resistance continues to echo through his work, which often celebrates the freedom of queer bodies while confronting the systems that attempt to control them.

Across the exhibition, viewers encounter an eclectic cast of collaborators: performers, artists, lovers, and nightlife rebels. Many of Mogutin’s subjects come from underground queer scenes — spaces where self-expression thrives beyond the boundaries of mainstream respectability. His camera lingers on moments that feel spontaneous and electric: a glance, a pose, a playful act of exhibitionism. There is humour here, but also tenderness, reminding us that queer intimacy is as complex as it is powerful.

Importantly, the exhibition doesn’t simply present nudity as spectacle. Instead, it reframes the naked body as a site of liberation and self-determination. In Mogutin’s images, bodies become political — a quiet but defiant refusal to conform to the expectations placed upon queer people.

That ethos resonates strongly within the legacy of the Bob Mizer, the pioneering photographer whose work in mid-century physique magazines helped shape early gay visual culture. By hosting Mogutin’s retrospective, the foundation creates a dialogue between generations of queer image-makers who have challenged censorship and expanded how male beauty, sexuality, and identity can be represented.

More than just a retrospective, “Now Is a Good Time to Get Naked” feels like a celebration of queer visibility in all its forms — messy, joyful, rebellious and unapologetically human. It’s also a reminder that queer art has always thrived on the margins, pushed forward by artists willing to risk something personal in order to tell the truth.

Twenty-five years on, Mogutin’s work still carries that same pulse of defiance. And perhaps that’s the point: sometimes the most radical act is simply showing yourself — fully, fearlessly, and without apology. 🌈