10 Digital Artists: LGBTQIA+ digital artists you should know
What better opportunity than Pride Month is there to celebrate the unique creativity of digital artists from the LGBTQIA+ community? Especially this year, when Pride at times feels more like a fight than a celebration.
Art is a wonderful resource to understand, respect, and support the diversity of the queer experience in depth.
Marching towards a future where all humans feel safe and free to express themselves, we gathered a list of 10 digital artists who fight for human rights and inspire change in the most creative and innovative ways.
Whether you are an artist looking for inspiration, a curator working on an exhibition, or a digital arts fan looking to discover digital artists, this list is for you.
Here’s a list of 10 talented digital artists of the LGBTQIA+ community who create wonderful digital paintings, augmented reality art, 3D sculptures, and more.
Scroll to learn more about them! Here’s the featured artists:Huntrezz JanosIkaro Cavalcante (occulted)RenderfruitLeônidas ValdezCibelle Cavalli BastosSam Clover (Planttdaddii)Yosnier Miranda (occurences)Ellie PrittsFEWOCiOUSCymoonvHuntrezz Janos is an Afro-Hungarian digital artist born in Los Angeles in 1996. She holds a degree in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts and creates works in various mediums such as painting, music, animation, and performance. Her work has been featured in Junglepussy’s MAIN ATTRACTION video, Tate Britain’s Late at TateSeries, and the group exhibition Beyond Embodiment at the Brand Art Center in LA.
In her words, she is a trans-fem alien that has evolved alongside humanity since days yet to come, as she exists in a quantum state and makes art in a future that has long passed.
For her 2020 solo exhibition, Infilteriterations, at Transfer Gallery, she takes her experience of systemic violence and exclusion as a black, non-binary artist and offers new realities using augmented reality. Huntrezz’s face filters explore concepts of identity by creating impossible characters of a fantasy world where the oppressed can rise up, defeat their aggressors, and reclaim agency and authority.
While her protest videos cry for justice against police brutality in the US during the social justice uprising of 2020, her art presents a future of equality and freedom, and empowerment to self-realization for anyone.
Huntrezz is also featured in 10 Digital Artists: Augmented Reality Art
“I have been exploring my own identity through avatars made to my own design – moving sculptures in another dimension – a virtual projection of beings clothed in impossible garments that do not adhere to norms and rules that govern our space. Faces to be shared among people and objects without space.”
Ikaro Cavalcante, or known as occulted in the digital arts world, is a Brazilian non-binary digital artist who has experience in design, tattoo, and performance. The trandisciplinary artist is best known for their 3D works that explore memory in surreal and abstract environments and sculptures.
Computer files that get taken apart and reassembled in the process of storage inspires them for existing in a state of transition. Their 2022 work, Virtual Memory, for instance, similarly explores the concept of memory in between — the surreal environment portrays dreams, fantasy and gender, as well as life and death, all mixed up in a non-binary memory system where the data is processed beyond physical memories and in the transition.
Occulted often uses neon lights in their art, which reference queer night life: “I believe that nightlife provides a safe bubble for artists around the world. Parties and sites of celebration offer an effervescent space of creativity.” They are also a member of the DAO of Brazilian artists, Magma, which has partnered with Refraction last year to translate the spirit of nightlife into arts and help web3 empower queer communities.
Renderfruit is a 3D artist, motion designer and animator based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She says her works materialize “eerie feelings, flying thoughts, and mood swings.” Driven by inner thoughts and influenced by music, they are multi-layered, eclectic, surreal, and beautiful.
Renderfruit’s art has been exhibited worldwide: at the Frieze Gallery London, in Times Square, and at the Venice Biennale 2022, in addition to her permanent collection at the Brooklyn Museum of Moving Images. She has made visuals and NFTs for Young Thug, Kodak Black, Nike, Faze Clan, and others.
She has recently collaborated with Charis to create Ascendent Morphology, “a digital to physical design studio exploring the post binary inner sanctuaries of becoming from digital to physical,” that expresses the unique reality of queerness. The project is selected for Artizen Fund and involves sculptures and wearables that come with benefits for collectors and holders.
Also featured in 10 Digital Artists: The Best of 3D Art
Leônidas Valdez is a non-binary contemporary visual artist based in Brazil. They often use artificial intelligence to create art since 2021. Their art is colorful and hopeful — they invite feelings of love and affection in case of violence, denial, and fear. Leônidas Valdez calls us to love when caught in a cycle of negativity.
Their recent digital painting series named Kaviunos draws inspirations from Brazilian culture and ancestral beliefs.
The One Who Lives Inside the Tree, 2023, by Leônidas Valdez, from their Digital painting series, Kaviunos
“In this series I will talk about some of the Voduns (deities of the Ewe-Fon peoples cultured in the Candombles of Jeje in Brazil, similar to Nkises and Orisás) kaviunos.
They belong to the family of Sogbo and are connected to the phenomena of lightning, thunder and fire (called só-voduns) and jí-voduns, voduns from the sky; they are also included in that family the tó-vodunas, which are of the seas and oceans.
In this art I represent the Vodun Loko, the Atinmé-Vodun (the Vodun that lives inside the tree).
Loko is the first sacred being in the world, born of the union between Mawú and Lissa; it is the gameleira, the vodun that ties the earth to heaven, represents ancestral memory and is one of the holders of the Hunjeve, the jewel of the maxi and one of the symbols of the link between vodun and vodunsí.
Loko is the resistance to the action of time and man, it is our connection with vodun and life.
That with him we learn to preserve our ancestry and the creation of Gbessen and Dadá Segbô.
May we, like the athen (tree), take roots and bear good fruit.”
[Text and art by Leônidas Valdez Dofono Azonsí, translated from Portuguese.]
Cibelle Cavalli Bastos is a non-binary artist who was born in Brazil and currently lives in Berlin. They graduated in 2015 from the Royal College of Art, London and released four music albums worldwide under “Cibelle.” They have performed and presented work in prestigious music halls worldwide.
In addition to music, they create digital as well as traditional art to reflect assembling selfhood through fragmented parts of identity — the artist is known for their immersive installations, augmented reality art, AI art, performances, paintings, ceramics, sculptures, video, photography, and text.
They reuse and repurpose data in consideration of the many forms one can occupy and explore transformation from positions of the in-between.
Cibelle Cavalli Bastos has given lectures and workshops and participated as a panelist at events organized by Stanford University Art History, The Graduate Center City University of New York, Goldsmiths University of London’s Fine Art MA, and more.
Cibelle Cavalli Bastos is also featured in 10 Digital Artists: Augmented Reality Art
“Not a woman, nor a man, an aevtar interface”
Sam Clover, also known as Planttdaddii in the digital arts world, is a digital sculptor and animator from Seattle and is now based in New York City. She creates her art using Zbrush, Cinema 4D, Maya, Octane Render, Substance Painter, Adobe Suite, and 3D printing.
She has been using art to process life, communicate, and navigate her mental health since early ages and always brings playful elements to her work.
Last year during Pride, Planttdaddii and her partner Nicole Ruggiero curated ICONS for SuperRare, which is an exhibition featuring openly queer artists who have powerful voices and play a vital role in the LGBTQ+ community. The curators created Achievement Unlocked: Touch Grass for the exhibition, which represents the artists’ frustrations around stereotypical gender options they were given growing up.
Achievement Unlocked: Touch Grass by Nicole Ruggiero and Sam Clover
“The platform world Nicole and Sam created for Fish is based on NYC and was conceptualized by Sam. Recently, Sam moved from Seattle to New York. She chose a NYC-style platformer world because she felt it would be a perfect way to express how chaotic it is to live in New York, and thought it would make a great world for a character to fight baddies within. The world also reflects the little things that bring Sam joy and help her overcome daily stressors. Fish battles enemies in this NYC-themed world, jumping from platform to platform, proud to be facing these challenges as a hero, living life true to themself.” — excerpt from NFT description
“I’m currently living in Brooklyn with my partner and 2 cats, and maintain a small freshwater fish tank and enjoy birdwatching.”
Yosnier Miranda, also known as occurences in the digital arts world, is a 23-year-old digital illustrator based in Tampa, Florida. They have been exclusively creating digital art and NFTs, and have never done physical art. They depict their experiences of hurt and pain in their art with the aim of documenting as well as healing. Their art is about growth, personal experiences, and vulnerability.
The second work they have ever posted on Twitter was an illustration of the singer SZA, and she loved it so much that she reshared it to her audience. Since then, Yosnier’s prominent online presence has caught the eye of stars like Normani, whose record label commissioned them for her song with Cardi B., “Wild Side.”
Yosnier’s work is recognizable for its Tarot-card-like design and pastel pink and purple color palette with thick black lines. They reflect ideas of an uncertain future alongside symbols of hope and growth. A common motif in their art is the shining sun, which represents the artist’s late father watching over them.
“All of my pieces are very therapeutic. My art lets me visualize and then analyze my emotions more, which helps me process things I’m going through more than anything else. They all aren’t direct self-portraits of myself, but I do consider them all to be self-portraits. I’ve cried while making seven or eight of my pieces. Towards the end when they all come together. When you just sit back and look at what you’ve created and finally get to absorb it.”
Ellie Pritts is a transmedia artist and curator from Chicago and is currently based in Los Angeles. They work with photography, video, and 2D animation and are widely recognized in the world of Web3 and AI art.
Their exhibitions have been presented by companies like Open.AI, SuperRare, Coinbase and featured in publications such as Fortune, TIME, WIRED, and Harper's BAZAAR. They have worked with clients like Apple and Levi’s and exhibited art worldwide.
Ellie Pritts’s work explores reinterpreted nostalgia — they mix analog and digital processes and use multiple forms of generative AI.
Two works from their collection Amaranthine Reveries, Antipathy Tries and Derealization Won't Save Us, are recently exhibited at ALGORITHMIC EMPATHY. THE PROMISES OF AI at EXPANDED.ART in Berlin. These are animated self-portrait videos created using AI which explore the boundaries between our physical bodies and the essence of who we are at our core.
Ellie Pritts recently had a solo show at bitforms gallery — In The Screen I Am Everything.
Watch the Digital Art Explained episode on In The Screen I Am Everything
FEWOCiOUS is a digital artist from Las Vegas and is currently based in New York. He started creating at 13 to escape and refuge as a young transgender artist. In 2021, he was solidified as one of the most important creators of Web3 following his art’s sale for $2,857,702 (654 ETH) at the record breaking auction at Christie’s. The artist has amassed nearly $50million in sales for his art thus far.
FEWOCiOUS is one of the most popular and influential NFT artists of our generation. His art explores notions of freedom, isolation and exploration and is often about defining oneself, freeing oneself from artificial limitations, and finding a place in an unfeeling world.
“I think a lot in here, it’s not so bad. My friend, the cloud, says “Oh, but there’s more!” and more and more. I feel warmth from the sunlight, I’ve read sunlight feels like a hug. I don’t know why I’m trapped. I feel stuck. I can’t remember a time I’ve felt free. We all take things for granted, I know I do. How will anyone remember me? I haven’t made any connections, I know I’m long forgotten. I’ve stuck myself here. I don’t remember when it happened, and I can’t escape. My mind is always racing. It feels like I’ve discovered a new world in my thoughts. A bird flew by through the window’s window, it looked so happy. I wonder what it’s like to fly. I remember. I ran far. I flew far. To escape… the beginning of something more, the end of everything I’ve ever known.”
Simone Garcia, better known as Cymoonv in the digital arts world, is a 3D artist from Havana and is currently based in Spain. Her sexually-charged silicone-like figures explore topics of self-perception, virtual identities, and gender fluidity.
“The first piece in a series inspired by a Patakí from Afro-Cuban Santeria and that explores moments of intimacy and vulnerability that often escape traditional representations, crossed by a symbolic search for queerness in the Yoruba imaginary and other current identity issues.
The patakíes are short stories or parables that often represent situations and their consequences and that transmit teachings and knowledge that have a high value in the construction of moral norms and behaviors of their practitioners.
Patakí where Oyá saves Shangó:
Seeing himself surrounded by his enemies, Shangó fled to the place where Oyá lived. In that place, no one knew that she was Shangó's wife, so the orisha asked her to hide it.
Why do you lack the courage to fight? Oyá asked.
To which Shangó replied that he did not lack courage, but that he was tired and that if he could escape from that fence, he would regain his strength and desire to win.
Oyá thought for a few moments and then said:
–When night falls you will put on one of my dresses and I will give you my braids.
She cut her braids and gave them to Shangó who didn't know what to do with them. Oyá skillfully placed them on his head. Then she helped him dress as a woman.
Moments later Shango, imitating Oyá, left the house, crossed near the enemy and greeted, shaking his head, but without saying a word, because his voice was very loud.
He moved away from there and managed to rest. He found his horse and launched the attack, braver than ever, still dressed as a woman and with Oyá's braids. She left the house without braids and armed, determined to help her husband.
The enemy was defeated. Since then Oyá was inseparable from Shango in all wars.”
[Art and text by Cymoonv, translated from Spanish]
You’re already familiar with all these talented artists? That’s impressive! Read 10 Digital Artists: Women in digital arts you need to know next to extend your horizons.
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