![gay pride art images gay pride art images](https://i.etsystatic.com/9262482/r/il/dd7611/1470796088/il_794xN.1470796088_7z6j.jpg)
These images are often made in response to and in conversation with historical artworks and references such as the vanitas motif, religious paintings, and iconic gay artists who shaped my understanding of queer self-representation, like Pedro Lemebel, David Wojnarowicz, and Robert Mapplethorpe. I use self-portraiture in two ways: I create photographs where I respond subjectively to personal and emotional processes.
GAY PRIDE ART IMAGES SERIES
The two series together are testament to the process of growing older both physically and emotionally. The image here is a part of the 2019 “Untitled Self-Portrait” series, where I am posing with a mirror and a skull, and wearing a leather glove. I was interested in confronting myself now as an adult on camera with the changes on my face and body. I stumbled upon these images in my studio 20 years later and decided to reinterpret them. These images are a very personal reflection on death: At the time, I was dealing with my mother’s imminent death, and I was also coming to terms with my sexual identity in a conservative social context that had so far successfully othered me. In 1996, at the age of 18, I made a series of photographs titled “Self-Portrait with Death,” where I posed naked with a skull, reinterpreting the 17th-century vanitas motif. People try to figure our bodies into their narrative I’d rather figure my way out towards my own. I’m less concerned with convincing people that I’m an artist, and even less engaged with telling them “what” I am when they ask me. I participate in Pride just by existing my existence is a series of constant confirmation hearings because I’m used to having to explain myself. Ultimately, I just want to say, “I was here, this is my work, and it may have done something for you.” It might sound silly, but given the frequency of these experiences throughout my life, it’s less silly to me. I’ve had parts of my artist statement used to describe another queer Chinese photographer in a magazine. I’ve experienced being mistaken for someone before, and a friend has been mistaken for me, and that happens in different ways. This isn’t a mindset I like to have, but I often think that making self-portraits is my twisted way to claim authorship over my image and not be misattributed. I was tired of photographing myself so I decided to be tired of photographing my cardboard self instead. I’ve been working with cutouts as stand-ins for myself, as a conversation starter, as a decoy, as a way to avoid using Photoshop in my work over the years. I would have recurring nightmares about that room, so this is a reenactment of that nightmare. I made this self-portrait as a cardboard cutout in the back room of my childhood home.
![gay pride art images gay pride art images](https://i.fbcd.co/products/resized/resized-750-500/free-to-be-lgbt-d652a7517d09f31783ded4607186aa6ec2185251b8b4c7d7a6534e087de56546.jpg)
Read the artists’ responses below and explore more of their work-and that of other contemporary artists-in the collection “ Expressions of Pride: Self-Portraits and Reflections by LGBTQIA+ Artists” on Artsy, curated by Rachel Weisman. Rather, they offer a glimpse into the complexities and strength inherent in queer identities. The artworks included don’t aim to represent the LGBTQIA+ community-that is an impossible feat. From blown glass to photography to painting, these artworks show us how artists can represent themselves across a wide array of media and genres, including both abstraction, realism, or alter egos. The radical act of expressing one’s identity, despite rejection, political pushback, and the risk of violence, is a triumph of self-actualization in the face of public scrutiny.įor Pride Month this year, we spoke with artists of the LGBTQIA+ community about their own self-portraiture and the act of expressing oneself through art. Within the LGBTQIA+ community, visibility is often a double-edged sword: It can be a tool of self-empowerment, as well as a threat to one’s safety. “It’s a power shift from being defined to defining yourself,” said artist Alannah Farrell. They determine gesture, form, light, color, and the inclusion or exclusion of body parts what we see is something that the artist sees within themselves, an assertion of selfhood and visibility. In making themselves the focus of their work, the artist reveals and expresses elements of their identity, on their own terms. For artists, self-portraiture can be a powerful act of self-reflection.