Shoppers are turning their eyes to the real artists behind the film: Blake Jacobsen and Meghan Sabik’s decade-plus portfolio became the tactile, transgressive heart of Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex, helping make Olivia Wilde’s Erika Tracy feel lived-in, provocative, and very, very specific.

Essential Takeaways

  • Artists credited: Blake Jacobsen and Meghan Sabik supplied more than 20 photographic works, videos and installations that stand in for Erika Tracy’s oeuvre.
  • Built from history: Much of the film’s art comes from a long-running series, Curious Couple Seeking Third, giving the character a believable back catalogue.
  • Hands-on role: The duo advised on script, curation, framing and set installation , far beyond mere prop provision.
  • Multimedia scope: Photography, video pieces like Transgressive Heterosexual Video Art Piece, and installations such as SEX Xerox create the sense of a multidisciplinary contemporary practice.
  • Emotional texture: Their work adds grit, sex-positivity and a punkish edge that feeds the film’s mood and credibility.

Why the real art matters , it gives Erika Tracy a pulse

Olivia Wilde’s Erika Tracy doesn’t just hang pictures on a wall; she inhabits a visual language. The images and installations you see throughout the film are more than props , they carry texture, tone and a backstory that feels weathered and real. According to interviews with the artists, the filmmakers built Erika’s practice around existing work by Blake Jacobsen and Meghan Sabik, which gives the character a tangible career arc rather than a hastily imagined résumé. You can almost smell the gallery space: stale coffee, print toner and the metallic tang of hung frames.

A collaboration that started on a fashion shoot and widened into art-world practice

Jacobsen and Sabik first met in 2012 on a Lip Service shoot , a brand steeped in punk, fetish and sex-positive style , and turned that initial encounter into a creative partnership. Instead of sticking to photographer and model roles, they branched into joint projects across photography, video, performance and installations, later running an artist-run space. That origin creates a neat narrative loop: Lip Service’s aesthetic informed Araki’s early films, and now the duo’s work is foundational to his latest. It’s a reminder that creative scenes are small and cyclical; collaborations now can become cultural currency years later.

How the duo shaped the film beyond supplying images

The involvement went well past handing over prints. The artists worked with the film’s art department, reviewed scripts and visual references, researched art history for character psychology, and physically printed, framed and installed pieces on set. Producer Seth Caplan described them as “muses” , literal and fictional , because their work and knowledge of the Los Angeles scene helped anchor the film in recognizable realities. That level of curation matters: proper printing, ageing and placement give props the patina of a real life lived by an artist.

What viewers actually see , the mix that creates a believable oeuvre

If you pause the film you’ll spot recurring series and motifs drawn from Jacobsen and Sabik’s archive. The Curious Couple Seeking Third series appears frequently, which helps suggest an ongoing photographic investigation rather than a one-off gimmick. Interspersed are excerpts from video-based projects and installations, including pieces titled Transgressive Heterosexual Video Art Piece and SEX Xerox, which broaden the vocabulary and imply a multidisciplinary studio practice. For viewers, that variety signals seriousness: a contemporary artist often shows across formats, and Erika’s fiction follows that rule.

Why this approach matters for film and art audiences

Using real artists’ work to populate a fictional career blurs boundaries in a generative way. For audiences it reads as authenticity , the gestures, inconsistencies and oddities of an actual portfolio translate to richer character work on screen. For the artists, it’s a rare form of recognition: thirteen years of collaborative practice repurposed into a new narrative, complete with on-screen credit and even appearances. Industry-wise, it’s a neat model for future productions that want credible creative worlds without inventing entire visual histories from scratch.

It's a small change that makes the art on screen feel like someone’s lived, risky life.

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