Artists Exploring Gender
Words by Ray Fairhurst
It can be difficult to find artists that explore gender in a genderqueer or gender non-conforming manner. This, as well as my interest in trans and gender non-conforming culture, is why I wanted to compile a list of some artists who explore ideas of gender identity through their art.
Lili Elbe (1882-1931)
Lili was a Danish painter and one of the earliest people to undergo gender reaffirming surgery. She was married to Gerda Wegener, who did many portraits of her wife.
Pont sur la Loire, 1924
While Gerda mostly did Art Deco portraits, Lili’s paintings were mostly post-Impressionist landscapes. The bridge featured in the painting above, as well of many of her other works, is significant as she described herself in her biography as “a bridge between both man and woman”. In Pont sur la Loire, the bridge appears as a metaphor for herself while the contrast between the fast, tumultuous water in the foreground and the more peaceful water further back could depict the complexity of transitioning.
Claude Cahun (1894-1954)
Claude wrote that “Neuter is the only gender that always suits me” and used elle pronouns (the French feminine pronouns). Her photography has been described by Christy Wampole as displaying “transgender signals”.
Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait, Undated
Claude described her photography herself as “I am ambiguous to you. Neuter”, expressing that her art did explore her gender identity. Her photography was surrealist, influencing artists such as Cindy Sherman, Gillian Wearing, and Nan Goldin.
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
Frida was Mexican, something that she expressed in many of her paintings, which often explored her family, disability and cultural identity. She was inspired by Mexicanidad, the pride in being Mexican, which placed importance on indigenous cultures. Frida aimed "to be worthy, with my paintings, of the people to whom I belong and to the ideas which strengthen me".
Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair, 1940
Frida’s portrait above explores her gender identity as it features her wearing her father’s suit with cut hair. She uses her body to question societal ideas, such as the Spanish value of machismo - the quality of being masculine and self-reliant - which originated in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
Linda Stein (1943-Present)
Linda has said that “[her] goal as an artist is to use [her] gender-bending art to inspire Upstander behaviour for peace, equality and diversity.” She is Founding President of Have Art: Will Travel!
In Charge 694, Linda Stein
Some of her art collections include I Am The Environment, which includes sculptures made of materials such as sticks, stones, shells, newspapers and metal. Another is The Fluidity of Gender, which includes sculptures and paper works in which she plays with celebrities’ genders using collage.
Her website can be found here: https://www.lindastein.com/
Justin Vivian Bond (1963-Present)
Justin Vivian Bond was born in Maryland, America in 1963. They are transgender and have stated that “for me to claim to be either a man or a woman, feels like a lie. My identity falls somewhere in the middle and is constantly shifting”.
Justin Vivian Bond, Joan Crawford, Watercolour, 2020
In 2020, they started making watercolours of different celebrities’ eyes in their collection ‘69 Witch Eyes’, of people such as Oscar Wilde and Judy Collins, who they described as “defenders and protectors”. They called their art “meditative” and found it an enjoyable pastime while they were unable to perform cabaret shows during the lockdown.
Tuesday Smillie (1981-Present)
Tuesday’s work focuses on trans-feminist politics and the aesthetics of protest. A lot of her art was inspired by the fiction books written by Ursula Le Guin, the inspirations of which can be found in her collection of book covers on her portfolio website here: https://tuesdaysmillie.com/home.html
Tuesday Smillie, Some Women, Watercolour, Collage on paper, 2012
Her other collections include FREE OUR SIBLINGS//FREE OURSELVES, which is described as “investigat[ing] agency and self-actualization through trans-action” and Banners which uses mixed media and textiles to portray a certain setting or narrative.
B.G. Osbourne (1991-Present)
Osbourne is queer, bigender and autistic, and uses their art in order to explore their familial relationships and experiences as a neurodivergent gender-variant person.
One of the images from their installation, dollo’s law
Their current projects include protector, still(,)here and a thousand cuts. Protector is a short documentary that explores their relationship with their uncle. still(,)here is about the experiences of trans and Two-Spirit people who don’t live inside of large cities. A thousand cuts is a video installation made up of scenes and fragments of films and television episodes in which trans characters have been portrayed by cisgender people, addressing the “false representation” that can often be found in media that claims (and fails to) celebrate transgender experiences.
Their website can be found here: https://bgosborne.weebly.com/
Rya Hueston (Present)
Rya, a Diné (Navajo) and Hopi two-spirit artist, uses art to explore her gender and cultural identity. She has been a guest curator for exhibitions such as Untouchable Objects at the Five Oaks Museum, which she talked about on a podcast episode on Soundcloud.
Tiny Altar; self portrait
Her art mostly incorporates found objects - such as furniture - from the 18th and 19th Centuries. Art that explores both gender and cultural identity signifies how they link together and how people’s interests - in Rya’s case, vintage - can also be connected to gender identity in a way which might not be understood other than by the person themself.
Her art at the Five Oaks Museum can be found here: https://fiveoaksmuseum.org/gender-euphoria-rya-hueston/
