It’s Pride Month and it feels like a comeback. While the Pride 2020 March and most of the festivities were canceled due to COVID-19 concerns, the Pride March is back on this year, and a proper summer celebration is about to kick off. With that in mind we reached out to LGBTQ SVA, a club that provides students with a community space to share LGBTQIA+ experiences with fellow students, to recommend some queer-positive representing Instagram accounts for Pride Month.
LGBTQ SVA co-presidents and current third-year students Daniel DuBoulay and Elena Kim were happy to oblige our request. Here are their 11 queer-friendly Instagram account picks they’ve selected for Pride Month and their collective thoughts on the artists. Give them an IG follow!
Alok (they/them) is a writer, performance artist, and speaker who uses their platform to address the experience of nonbinary people, educate about commonly untaught queer history and challenge people’s notions regarding gender identity and expression. They are also known for their Pocket Change Collective book Beyond the Gender Binary.
Jeremy Sorese (he/him) is a gay illustrator whose work ranges from unapologetically sexy illustrations to heartfelt anecdotes portraying the gay elderly. Always staying truthful and intimate, his work is a reminder that radical empathy and love has always been a keystone of queer culture.
Olioli (they/he), is a queer fa'afatama Sāmoan illustrator who grew up on the island of Maui. They make art as a form of healing their past self and future self. Olioli finds joy in illustrating gentle, sweet moments in nature, emotive scenes between people, and draws inspiration from calm, simple and mundane memories.
Peo Michie is an illustrator from South Africa whose work primarily focuses on depicting different aspects of lesbian relationships and draws inspiration from her experience as a Black gay artist. Her work is stylized and intimate, as it explores diverse portrayals of queer relationships.
Chris Cortez (student, BFA Fine Arts) is a queer Mexican painter and performance artist whose work exists at the intersection of his identity. Referencing pop culture and history to investigate fluid gender expression, Chris reminds us that in speaking authentically we can find the links that connect us to each other and to our own heritage.
Vincent Ge-Ming Lia Chong is a queer, mixed-race, Chinese-American artist, calligrapher, seal engraver, printmaker, community organizer, and performance artist. Vincent combines his traditional art training with his queer identity, creating playful and symbolic seal carvings as well as paintings inspired by his friends.
Andrew Thomas Huang, known for his iconic fantastical style, is a writer-director whose works range from music videos to films, including the viral short film Kiss of the Rabbit God (兔兒神). Inspired by his Chinese heritage, queer Asian mythology and folklore, Huang is currently working on his first feature film, TIGER GIRL.
Alumnus Steven Oliver Davis (BFA 2021 Animation) is a Black queer animator from New York. Noting the lack of queer representation in animation, Steven seeks to create a glamorous, colorful and fluid world through his animation. Check out the thesis film he animated and produced this past year, OPULENCIA.
SVA faculty member and alumnus T.M. Davy (BFA 2002 Illustration) is a queer painter who devotes himself to bring queer love to the forefront, shining a light on the transformative power of authenticity and love. T.M.'s subject matter contains portraiture, candlelight scenes and wildlife, and he typically focuses on their interaction with light and shadows.
Alumnus Ryan Pfluger (MFA 2007 Photography, Video and Related Media) is a photographer captivated by nostalgia and whose work often deals with recreating memories. Ryan is also known for his portraiture. By focusing on the subtlety of body posture and the gaze, Ryan intimately captures his subjects, whether they are celebrities like Sam Smith or friends in queer relationships.
Demian DinéYazhi´is an Indigenous Diné transdisciplinary artist and activist dedicated to ongoing Decolonial Indigenous practice and Indigenous Sovereignty. They also direct the artist-activist organization called R.I.S.E. (Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment) and are the co-director of the zine Locusts: A Post-Queer Nation Zine.