Mojo Mustapha – Erotic Art Museum Curator

Meet Mojo Mustapha, Founder And Curator

Mojo Mustapha is the founder and curator of World Art Erotica, an international virtual museum dedicated to preserving erotic art, sensual culture, mythology, literature, and artistic expressions of human intimacy from around the world. Founded in 1992, the museum has grown into a unique online archive of historical erotic art, cultural artifacts, and educational resources spanning Europe, Asia, Africa, and beyond.

Explore The Full Museum Collection

From York University To The Birth Of An Idea

Mojo studied Sociology and Women's Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. Young, idealistic, and drawn to controversial subjects, he loved taking on essays about recreational drugs, feminism, homosexuality, AIDS, prostitution, and racism. One of his major essays was called Pornography: Where Do We Draw the Line? As part of that assignment, he went around campus showing female staff and students a series of sexually explicit images from various magazines and asking whether they considered them erotic or pornographic.

Many of the women found the pictures degrading and exploitative. But there was also deep inconsistency. One woman's definition of patriarchal porn was another woman's fantasy. He read the major feminist writers of the era: Susan Brownmiller, Andrea Dworkin, Gloria Steinem. "Give us erotica," they cried, "not pornography." But they often went fuzzy when it came to defining exactly what erotica was. For Mojo, the question was too interesting to let go.

After university, his first major trip was to Israel on a soul-seeking mission. He was one of the first people with a Muslim name to apply to volunteer at a kibbutz.

A Life Of Travel And Cultural Discovery

Mojo during his travels in Portland, Oregon

Mojo continued traveling the world, seeking cultural experiences and living in various intentional communities. His travels took him to Japan, the Netherlands, India, Australia, South Africa, Denmark, Germany, Thailand, and Israel. Along the way he worked in various roles: English teacher in Japan, taxi driver in Toronto, and nightclub worker in Germany.

While living in Japan, he heard about a spiritual community in India run by a feminist guru known as Osho. He traveled there and spent four years gaining insight into alternative models of community living, knowledge that would later shape the founding design of Hedonisia Hawaii.

Across these travels, he slowly built a collection of erotic art and literature from every country he visited. He would often share samples with female friends who were almost without exception fascinated by these decidedly different interpretations of erotica from around the world.

The Venus Tempel And The Birth Of World Art Erotica

As a Sociology major with time to pursue his investigations, Mojo journeyed to Amsterdam. Near the red light district was his destination: the Venus Tempel Sex Museum, which held one of the largest collections of historical and cultural erotica in the world. It was the perfect place to observe the reactions of visitors from around the globe.

He stood outside the museum for many days with his notebook, collecting statistics and observing visitor behavior. He discovered that 42% of the visitors were women, a figure that was especially striking when compared to the almost negligible number of women who frequent traditional sex shops. Time after time, when couples walked by, it was the woman who dragged her protesting boyfriend or husband inside. Many women also went in singly or in pairs, gazing in open admiration at the exhibits and reading the captions with obvious interest.

He began to see that historical and cultural erotica offered something that mainstream pornography often lacked: depth, context, and romance. Whether art and philosophy from the Kama Sutra, statues and carvings of Dionysian revelry from Ancient Greece and Rome, or sumptuous 19th-century French paintings, these works satisfied the brain as well as the eye. That observation became the founding idea behind World Art Erotica, born in 1992.

Hedonisia Hawaii, Pleasurable Activism, And The Kilauea Eruption

Mojo at Hedonisia Hawaii, the eco-feminist community he directed for 14 years

Mojo started life in what he describes as the opposite camp. Raised within Islam, which like Christianity promotes the idea of delaying fun and pleasure, he found this framework was simply not for him. He left and began, as he puts it, to have some fun: wild, sensual, ecstatic, and romantic. He made love across the planet while never hurting anyone or imposing his way on others. In doing so, he discovered that paradise can truly be found on earth.

He has since tried to live a life of pleasurable activism: working on projects that benefit people and the planet without asking anyone to feel guilty about enjoying their life along the way. He sardonically identifies as a Queer, BIPOC, First Amendment Liberal, Ex-Muslim, new immigrant, and natural disaster refugee who loves politically incorrect humor and having fun with labels.

From 2004 until its destruction in the 2018 Kilauea volcanic eruption, Mojo served as Community Director of the Hedonisia Hawaii EcoFeminist Community. The community hosted volunteers and visitors from around the world who participated in projects focused on ecological living, entrepreneurship, female empowerment, cultural exchange, and social innovation. Many of the ideas that shaped World Art Erotica deepened and evolved during this period.

Following the eruption, Mojo launched the Hedonisia Lava to Lotus Portfolio, a collection of educational, cultural, entrepreneurial, and creative projects built around the philosophy of transforming adversity into opportunity. World Art Erotica is one of the cornerstones of that broader mission.

Inspired by the international community at Hedonisia Hawaii, Mojo also created the Hedonisia Diversity and Free Speech Communication Workshops, based on free-speech conversation guidelines developed at the community. These groups give participants space to speak openly about sex as it relates to race, orientation, gender, and culture without fear of being called out. The same open and curious spirit informs the educational approach of World Art Erotica.

Sociology Of Sex, Gender Healing, And Sensual Heritage

Sociology of Sex: articles exploring sexuality and culture

Mojo writes regularly on the Sociology of Sex page, a growing collection of articles that examine how sexuality intersects with culture, history, economics, politics, and social behavior. Topics range from how two colonial conquests reshaped India's erotic heritage, to the relationship between sex and beauty standards, to how alcohol functions as a social permission slip for pleasure or pain. Each article identifies an area of sexual dysfunction in modern society and then explores sex-positive, creative solutions. Articles are also published on the Sociology of Sex Substack.

Yin-Yang Gender Healing: cooperative equality for women and men

One of Mojo's most significant post-volcano projects is Yin-Yang Gender Healing, an initiative focused on reducing the growing polarization between males and females in the modern world. Rooted in the ancient Taoist philosophy of balance between masculine and feminine energies, it proposes a model of gender equality that is cooperative rather than confrontational: men and women as partners, not opponents. The project includes a 13-module online workshop series, private gender dialogue sessions, a Gender Talks Substack, and the Warrior WoMan book.

Mojo at the 2019 Climate Strike in London, UK

Today, Mojo continues to curate World Art Erotica while expanding its collections of erotic art, mythology, literature, photography, and cultural history from around the world. His goal is not simply to display images but to preserve and share an important part of humanity's artistic heritage: the countless ways in which civilizations across time and geography have celebrated love, beauty, fertility, intimacy, and human creativity through art.

Every civilization creates art inspired by intimacy and human connection. Ancient Indian temple carvings, Chinese erotic paintings, Japanese shunga prints, Greek mythology, Roman sculpture, Renaissance paintings, and countless other traditions demonstrate that erotic expression has been part of human culture throughout history. World Art Erotica exists to give those works the context, respect, and visibility they deserve.