PRIDE ART: A HISTORICAL REFLECTION
In this month’s newsletter, we are highlighting Pride-inspired art. We’re grateful to Equality NOVA for supporting a special podcast series that celebrates the artists and arts organizations that reflect the diversity of our community.
The history of gay art is one of coded expression, activism, and pride. For centuries, artists worked within strict social taboos, using classical, mythological, and religious imagery to express same-sex desire. With the rise of modern Pride movements, art became a more visible and vibrant tool for liberation and celebration (Queer History, 2026).
Dr. Ignacio Darnuade of the Museum of Latin American Art explains that, before homosexuality was more openly accepted, many artists used “coded” imagery to express queer desire while avoiding persecution. He points to Santarino Herrán and Monegro, two groundbreaking muralists who influenced Diego Rivera. According to Darnuade, queer artists in Latin America developed subtle visual languages—drawing on classical, religious, and Indigenous imagery—to express same-sex desire more safely.
Art historians often cite Herrán’s masterpiece Nuestros dioses antiguos (Our Ancient Gods, 1916) as a powerful example of coded art. The painting challenges colonial narratives and celebrates pre-colonial Indigenous sensuality through male figures portrayed with grace and eroticism.
That tradition of queer Mexican art is well represented in Arlington through the work of David Amoroso. Using vibrant color, humor, camp, and pop culture imagery, Amoroso creates art through a queer lens that he calls Mexicanismo. His style has been described as a bold visual approach featuring well-known Mexican cultural icons and celebrities, including Frida Kahlo, Maria Félix, and Javier Solís. To learn more about Herrán and Monegro, watch this video and follow Amoroso’s work to explore his queer-inspired visual expression.
Art historians often cite Herrán’s masterpiece Nuestros dioses antiguos (Our Ancient Gods, 1916) as a powerful example of coded art. The painting challenges colonial narratives and celebrates pre-colonial Indigenous sensuality through male figures portrayed with grace and eroticism.
That tradition of queer Mexican art is well represented in Arlington through the work of David Amoroso. Using vibrant color, humor, camp, and pop culture imagery, Amoroso creates art through a queer lens that he calls Mexicanismo. His style has been described as a bold visual approach featuring well-known Mexican cultural icons and celebrities, including Frida Kahlo, Maria Félix, and Javier Solís. To learn more about Herrán and Monegro, watch this video and follow Amoroso’s work to explore his queer-inspired visual expression.
DRAG AS ART
Drag has a long cultural history. It includes cross-dressed performance and the deliberate parody of fixed ideas about gender and sexuality. Men performed female roles in Ancient Greek tragedy, Shakespeare’s plays featured men cast as women, and Baroque opera included early forms of drag performance.
Writer and social commentator Amelia Abraham (Artsy Editorial, 2023) notes that the term “drag queen” was first used in Polari, a form of British slang popular among gay men and theater communities in the late 19th and 20th centuries, to describe men wearing women’s clothing. Drag has long held a strong place in popular culture, and more recently it has also gained a significant presence in the art world.
Today, drag is having a mainstream moment. The popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Conchita Wurst’s Eurovision win, and the rise of drag-themed events in cities like London, New York, and Los Angeles have helped bring drag to wider audiences. Museums and galleries have responded as well. Drag has influenced major exhibitions such as the Whitney Biennial and performance programs like “Contemporary Drag” at NADA New York. It also appears as a key theme in Tate Britain’s exhibition “Queer British Art.”
Many artists have documented drag over the years. Andy Warhol filmed performers such as Candy Darling and Mario Montez. Video artist Charles Atlas captured London nightlife icon Leigh Bowery. Photographer Nan Goldin documented drag communities in Boston and later in New York during the 1980s and early 1990s. Mario Montez also later collaborated with photographer Conrad Ventur.
If we think of drag as the performance of gender, sexuality, or other fixed social roles, then in some ways we are all performing drag every day. If it challenges rigid identity categories, it remains a powerful form of expression. In today’s political climate, that makes drag more relevant than ever as a source of creativity and resistance.
CAT DAD AND STORYTELLER
Carlos Velazquez: It is our distinct pleasure to introduce a remarkable storyteller who is part of the Better Said Than Done’s Showcase entitled Love is Love which is in recognition of Pride Month. Archy Jamjun is a prominent Chicago-based storyteller, author, and co-curator of Outspoken LGBTQ Stories at Sidetrack. A two-time winner of The Moth GrandSLAM, he is known for using humor and heartfelt emotion to explore identity, growing up gay with Thai immigrant parents, and finding self-acceptance.
Archy, how are you doing?
Archy Jamjun: I'm great, I'm great. Actually, I just adopted a cat, so I'm very… pretty happy.
Carlos Velázquez: You did!
Archy Jamjun: Yeah. Aww. (cat slides across the screen)
Carlos Velázquez: What's your cat's name?
Archy Jamjun: Well, his name at the anti-cruelty group was Shabazz, but I think… I just came up with the name Nong Tong for him, which means golden baby in Thai, so I think that's gonna be his name.
Carlos Velázquez: That's very sweet of you, very kind. So, why don't you share with our listeners a little bit about yourself. Besides the fact that you're a dad now. And how did you go about creating this connection with Better Said Than Done?
Archy Jamjun: Well, let's see, I think I came across Better Said Than Done during the pandemic, because they were doing a lot of online storytelling. And I think I may have met one of them at the National Storytelling Network, or someone on the West Coast. I did a storytelling festival in the West Coast a couple years ago, or, well, a couple years ago, like, 5 to 7 years ago, and maybe that's how they reached out to me to do the show, so…from a couple shows during the pandemic.
Carlos Velázquez: And how did you become a storyteller, or how long have you been doing storytelling?
Archy Jamjun: I've been storytelling for about 12 years now, and it started because I went to… well, my dad was like, what are you doing with your life? And I was like, nothing! But I was writing, I want to be a writer, and I wrote this story about my cat, and then, you know how publishing is, everything goes to a slush pile, so I decided to go to an open mic in the area, and there was one person there, but that one person was a producer at the Moth, and then they told me to go compete at a moth. I went to compete on my first Moth, and I won the first night, and then it just all started this kind of snowball effect of telling stories all over the city.
Listen to the rest of the hilarious interview, click here.
DANCE FOR QUEER ART EXPRESSION
Dance has long been a vital and empowering art form within the LGBTQ+ community. It has served as a tool for activism, self-expression, and community building. Styles such as Voguing and Waacking emerged from marginalized spaces and later grew into internationally recognized cultural movements.
Disco also became a powerful form of queer expression, bringing together people from across the community. The dance movement elevated the visibility of queer icons such as Silvester, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, and the Village People.
Local creator and director of JAM the Revue, Jeremy A. McShan, knows all too well the power of dance to bring together communities. He shared that as a choreographer and dancer; he needed a space to do his own work. “I found my home within the company I created in 2013. I take pride in producing shows with a diversity of exceptional talent. Dance is a place where you can take emotion and display it through movement. This transference is healing not only to the dancer but also the one who witnesses it.”
His sense of pride is beyond 30 days of celebration for June, “Being a queer performer has allowed me a safe place to escape from the world thus enabling me the freedom to express myself fully in the moment.” Keep up with JAM the Revue on Instagram and Facebook.
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