Art gay male

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It's a beginning filled with great hope. A personal and idiosyncratic selection, this isn’t meant to be definitive.


• Gwenaël Rattke record covers


• The art of Paul Binnie


• Splendid Suns


• Bill Travis revisited


• The art of Eduardo Hernández Santos


• The art of Alexander Cañedo, 1902–1978


• Barazoku covers


• Notre Dame des Fleurs: Variations on a Genet Classic


• The art of Shinji Horimura


• Tom’s World


• Born to be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey


• The art of Antoon van Welie, 1866–1956


• The art of Paul Thévenaz, 1891–1921


• The art of Peter Knoch


• The art of Tatsuji Okawa, 1904–1994


• The art of Willem Arondeus, 1894–1943


• The art of Nicholas Tolmachev


• The art of David Haines


• A Q&A with artist Mel Odom


• Homosurrealism


• In Homage to Priapus


• Querelle de Brest


• Fast Friends


• The art of Jean Boullet, 1921–1970


• Tom of Finland redesigned


• May Wilson’s Snowflakes


• Tom of Finland postage stamps


• The art of Robert W.

Richards


• The art of Sidney Hunt, 1896–1940


• Ignacio Goitia interviewed


• Andrey Avinoff revisited


• Fetish photographer Rick Castro


• Keep Your Timber Limber


• The art of Naomichi Okutsu


• The art of Konstantin Somov, 1869–1939


• The art of Seiji Inagaki


• Claudio Bravo’s packages


• Gekko Hayashi revisited


• The art of George Stavrinos, 1948–1990


• The art of Gösta Adrian-Nilsson, 1884–1965


• The art of Gregorio Prieto, 1897–1992


• The art of Guido Reni, 1575–1642


• The art of Michael Leonard


• The art of Ismael Álvarez


• Muto Manifesto, volume 7


• Cum In Your Eye by Scott La Force


• Be prepared


• The art of Xiyadie


• Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen revisited


• Gay octopus sex


• The art of Hyeyeol


• Richard Bruce Nugent’s Salomé


• The art of Elmgreen and Dragset


• Elie Grekoff’s Tirésias


• The art of Rob Clarke


• Japanese gay art


• The art of Mel Odom


• The Classical alibi in physique photography


• Ed Wood’s Sleaze Paperbacks


• Looking for the Wild Boys


• Seminal art and design


• The art of Ludwig von Hofmann, 1861–1945


• Muto: The Exterface Manifesto


• Carl Corley


• Phallic casts


• Lonesome Cowboys


• Jean Genet… ‘The Courtesy of Objects’


• Loving Boys by Christian Schad


• Saint Genet


• Le Baiser de Narcisse


• Philippe Jullian, connoisseur of the exotic


• The art of Marcus Behmer, 1879–1958


• Richard de Chazal’s Zodiac


• Wildeana #3


• Der Eigene: Kultur und Homosexualität


• The art of Ignacio Goitia


• Gekko Hayashi: homoerotics and monsters


• The Lady Is Dead and The Irrepressibles


• The fetish art of Taylor Buck


• The art of Ben Kimura


• The art of Dmitry Dmitriev


• Sanctuarium Artis Elisarion


• The recurrent pose #32


• Le livre blanc by Jean Cocteau


• Michelangelo’s Dream


• Sherbet and Sodomy


• The art of Yannis Tsarouchis, 1910–1989


• Ecce homo


• Joseph Cavalieri’s stained glass


• Eros: From Hesiod’s Theogony to Late Antiquity


• The end of Orpheus


• The art of Robert Sherer


• The art of Goh Mishima, 1924–1989


• The art of Benoit Prévot


• The art of Robert R Bliss, 1925–1981


• The art of Oliver Frey


• The Great God Pan


• Jerry by Paul Cadmus


• The art of Ralf Paschke


• The recurrent pose #26


• The art of Anthony Goicolea


• The art of Philip Shadbolt


• The art of Patrick Gerbier


• The art of Paul Richmond


• The art of Hideki Koh


• The art of Cody Furguson


• Colin Corbett’s decorated jockstraps


• Fizeek Art


• Let’s get physical: Bruce of Los Angeles and Tom of Finland


• Secret Lives of the Samurai


• The art of Cuauhtémoc Rodríguez


• Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray


• IKO stained glass


• The art of Nebojsa Zdravkovic


• The art of Jason Driskill


• William Rimmer’s Evening Swan Song


• The art of Norbert Bisky


• The art of Joan Sasgar


• Happy birthday Henry


• Phallic worship


• Saint Sebastian in NYC


• Mark Beard’s artistic circle


• Czanara: The Art & Photographs of Raymond Carrance


• The art of Scott Treleaven


• Reflections of Narcissus


• Narcissus


• Guido Reni’s Saint Sebastian


• The art of Sascha Schneider, 1870–1927


• Anthony Gayton’s Fall


• Hadrian and Greek love


• The art of Sadao Hasegawa, 1945–1999


• Cain’s son: the incarnations of Grendel


• The art of Hernan Gimenez


• AVAF at Mao Mag


• The art of Matthew Stradling


• Men with snakes


• Felix D’Eon


• Obverse Paintings by Fred Chuang


• Les Farfadais


• The art of Takato Yamamoto


• The art of NoBeast


• The art of Andrey Avinoff, 1884–1949


• The art of Jacques Sultana


• Toxicboy


• The South Bank Show: Francis Bacon


• The art of Lucio Bubacco


• The Male Gaze


• The art of ejaculation


• Philip Core and George Quaintance


• The Budweiser Ganymede


• Czanara’s Hermaphrodite Angel


• The art of Giulio Aristide Sartorio, 1860–1932


• The art of Robert Flynt


• February boy


• The art of Peter Colstee


• Images of Nijinsky


• Michael Petry’s flag


• Angels 6: Paradise stands in the shadow of swords


• Angels 3: A diversion


• Angels 1: The Angel of History and sensual metaphysics


• The art of Hubert Stowitts, 1892–1953


• The art of Bill Travis


• Jean-Frédéric Bazille’s swimmers


• The art of Paul Cadmus, 1904–1999


• The Cult of Antinous


• Army Day


• Super-objects!


• View: The Modern Magazine


• Michelangelo revisited


• The art of Thomas Eakins, 1844–1916


• Gay book covers


• Marcello Dudovich


• Evolution of an icon

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Her work unapologetically fuses queerness, glamour, and political assertion.

It happens to be one of my favorite modern gay art pieces. In Becoming an Image, they strike a clay block in darkness while a camera flash records the violence—a metaphor for queer visibility and embodiment. Juliana Huxtable, a Black trans artist, poet, and performer, combines Afrofuturism, photography, and digital media to challenge fixed identities.

Together, let’s build the world’s largest queer art community, complete with a searchable portfolio directory and community dedicated to LGBTQI+ artists and their art.

Our community is diverse – artists, buyers, art enthusiasts, gallery owners, LGBTQI+ organizations, and more.

Build your artist’s page with us and be part of a global network of LGBTQI+ artists from all disciplines.

My profile picture is "David and Me," 2001 painting by artist Steve Walker. He used photographic sequences to tell poetic, often erotic, visual stories—like his haunting piece The Most Beautiful Part of a Man’s Body (1974), which explored vulnerability and sensuality through layered narrative. His artistic practice spans painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, stage design, and digital art, including pioneering work with iPad drawing apps.

Why? This makes your work and profile more accessible to partners, galleries, brands, collaborators, creatives around the world.

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To be featured on our socials, upload your original artwork for our social team’s consideration.

art gay male

I think my life will work out the way it was always meant to be. And in every painting, photograph, poem, and performance, LGBTQ+ artists have asked the world to see them not just as survivors—but as visionaries.

About Joe

I began my life in the South and for five years lived as a closeted teacher, but am now making a new life for myself as an oral historian in New England.

Haring’s energetic style and activist spirit continue to resonate, ensuring his legacy as an artist who merged exuberant creativity with fearless advocacy.

David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992) was a fiercely confrontational American artist, writer, and activist whose work channeled the raw power of queer rage into searing critiques of homophobia, censorship, and government inaction during the AIDS crisis.

No longer confined to coded symbolism or covert expression, gay pride began to blaze through the art world in bold, unflinching forms. Over the next six decades, LGBTQ+ artists harnessed the power of visibility to challenge oppression, celebrate desire, mourn loss, and imagine futures beyond shame.

The 1970s: Visibility and Liberation

Hockney is known for his vibrant use of color, innovative techniques, and significant contributions to the Pop Art movement.

It is both a work of art and a massive, tangible act of remembrance and protest.

2000s–Present: Intersectionality and Expanding the Frame

In recent decades, Pride in art has become more expansive, intersectional, and experimental.

Zanele Muholi, a South African visual activist, documents Black LGBTQ+ life through dramatic portraiture.

Michals’ pioneering approach profoundly impacted contemporary photography, emphasizing that imagery could embody not only what is seen, but also what is felt, imagined, or deeply desired.

The 1980s–90s: Art in the Shadow of AIDS

As the AIDS crisis devastated the LGBTQ+ community, artists responded with fury, grief, and resilience.

Keith Haring (1958-1990) was a groundbreaking American artist whose bold, neon-outlined figures transformed urban spaces and gallery walls into vibrant canvases filled with queer joy and political urgency.

His iconic piece Untitled (One day this kid…) (1990) juxtaposes a childhood photo of himself with a prophetic, damning text that lays bare the grim realities faced by queer youth in a hostile world. See Le déjeuner sur l’herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires (2010), a reimagining of Manet’s painting through a queer, Black feminist lens. Cassils, a transgender performance artist, uses their body in durational, often physically intense works.

Often blending dream-like imagery with deeply personal themes, Michals pushed beyond traditional documentary photography, favoring staged scenes to explore metaphysical questions, mortality, and human emotion.

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Emerging from New York’s East Village art scene in the 1980s, Wojnarowicz worked across media—painting, photography, film, and text—to expose the violence and vulnerability of queer existence. Pride in art has been about more than beauty—it has been about survival, protest, celebration, and memory.

As Pride Month continues, remember that the movement is not only political—it is also creative.

That doesn't mean there won't be ups and downs; that's all part of life. His iconic Silence = Death imagery became a rallying cry against apathy and inaction, galvanizing activism during the AIDS epidemic and amplifying voices within the LGBTQ+ community. Her self-portraits—gender-fluid, mythic, fierce—embody queer futurity.

More Artists to Explore

  • Robert Mapplethorpe – his black-and-white male nudes remain some of the most iconic (and controversial) queer images in American photography.
  • Kehinde Wiley – while not exclusively queer-themed, his work often presents Black men in romantic or intimate poses, reclaiming both history and homoerotic aesthetic.
  • Hunter Reynolds – an AIDS activist and visual artist whose performance pieces and memorial works carry immense emotional and historical weight.
  • Gilbert Baker – not only an artist, but the designer of the rainbow flag itself, one of the most enduring symbols of queer pride.

Pride as Resistance and Renewal

From murals to fashion, fine art to graffiti, queer art since 1970 has told the story of a people who refused to be erased.