“Art exists where language fails.” Illustrator Marcos Chin first heard this quote last summer, when he attended a talk by lesbian cross-disciplinary artist Sheila Pepe, and it stuck with him. Chin, a queer Asian American creator based in Brooklyn, is one of a dozen LGBTQ artists to catch our eye and land on this list, which spans backgrounds, disciplines, ethnicities, sexualities and gender identities. Dozens more could have joined their ranks, but the hope of these few is to represent many — and what binds them together isn't nails, glue, paint or thread, but one common virtue amid this pivotal period for queer culture: When language just won't cut it, art fills the void.
After fleeing the dangerously homophobic conditions of her native Uganda and gaining asylum in the U.S., Babirye had only art to claim for herself — she left behind family, friends and her girlfriend for the sake of her own survival. Today, she can work from anywhere, creating forms “carved using traditional African techniques mixed with found objects including metal, plastic and wood,” she said. A burned diary, she adds, reflects her own fears and desires about being out, while renderings of trans friends via paper or ceramics “represent some of the most vulnerable members of our community.” She's taken up activism, particularly as it relates to Uganda's 2021 presidential election, and she said, “How I live as an out lesbian in the fight for the rights of my community reverberates from New York, through social media, back to Uganda, and all over the world.”
R. Kurt Osenlund
