Masculinum Aeternum (Eternal Masculine) (c.1900) — The work should have been painted as a frieze in the hall of a European pinacotheca from the late 19th century, showcasing collections particularly focused on the beauty of the male form.
Homage and Reappropriation: A Queer Utopian Response to Tradition
At the heart of my artistic journey lies the introspection of a man, — with fluid sexual desire across the spectrum of masculine diversity, — artist and art historian.
After a lifetime of artistic practice, I began to ask myself: What if heteronormative oppression had not weighed on us for millennia? What if our desires and pleasures could have been expressed freely through artistic media? What works might now hang in museum galleries that are currently absent? My work seeks to answer these questions, presenting a utopian exploration of what art history could have been.
Amid the backlash against the progress and hopes achieved in recent decades, I ask myself how I can play an active role in this new chapter of defending and promoting queerness. How can I convey a message that perpetuates memory, resists a renewed historical erasure, and offers future generations a vision where our stories and identities are unapologetically affirmed?
Toward an Emancipated Museum: Art, Bodies, and Freedom Without Concessions
My artistic approach unfolds across two distinct dimensions: one more serious, the other deliberately playful.
On one hand, I aim to contribute to the creation of an imaginary museum, liberated from the historically heteronormative constraints that have shaped its narratives. In this space, my fantasies can freely materialize, forming a realm that outwardly adheres to traditional codes while subverting their rules. Here, ancient art is emancipated from the restrictive norms of its time. This visual world embraces a liberated sexuality—respectful and consensual—breaking away from reductive, moralistic models that ultimately oppress all individuals. It is a space where the body and its desires can be depicted without shame or repression.
This project does not seek to criticize the work of past artists or diminish the importance of "surviving" works. Rather, it offers alternative interpretive keys that draw attention to creations that never came to be—not for lack of talented artists capable of their realization, but because of societal oppression that stifled countless works throughout the ages.
Subverting this established order involves breaking with systems that perpetuate the shame of the body, its nudity, and its sexuality. It is a call for an art that redefines what belongs on museum walls, inviting society to reconsider the relationship between art and the values it reflects.
On the other hand, these ambitions are often served with humor. I frequently step away from the gravitas of cultural heritage to explore a playful creative universe where queer fantasy thrives. This creative playground, contrasting with my more contemplative and heritage-rooted work, adds a touch of levity to my broader practice.
Chimeras and Reappropriation: AI in the Service of Queer Empowerment
In my creative process, artificial intelligence acts as a "generative subconscious," a reservoir of novel inspirations and unexpected visual possibilities.
The creations born of AI are chimeras—fragments of reality fused with dreamlike distortions, sometimes insightful and other times absurd, akin to a dream revealing glimpses of a parallel world. As an artist, I exercise my agency in selecting aberrations and hallucinations that, through their strangeness, enrich and transform the final work, delineating the boundary between the real and the imaginary.
I have developed a technique of intervention inspired by traditional pictorial practices, employing layers of virtual matter and texture. This method involves digitally applying these elements to a canvas-like surface using an instrument that mimics the time-honored techniques of visual artists. By blending the legacy of traditional art with the precision and boundless possibilities of the digital medium, this approach bridges the two realms.
My work also delves into queer and fantastical representations, reclaiming imagery for those long excluded from public portrayal. It is an act of empowerment for those whose gestures of affection, embraces, and intimate expressions have been absent from the popular imagery of past centuries. This practice celebrates and makes visible these presences, offering a space to those who were denied existence in public life.
Redefining Masculinity: An Ode to the Male Body, Subverting Oppressive Violence
My work diverges from the glorification of martial valor and the armed heroism that seeks to ennoble humanity's intrinsic brutality for purposes of conquest and subjugation.
This critique extends beyond questioning violence itself, challenging the fascination with the idealized brute—a reductive demonstration of male superiority. Instead, I propose an ode to the strength of the male body that, while unapologetically affirmed, is stripped of any claim to dominance.
This vision goes further. Rather than meeting in battles driven by hatred or the quest for power, the male bodies in my work embrace and unite in gestures of love. Masculinity is presented through a lens that legitimizes and celebrates homosexuality, deconstructing aggression by reversing traditional themes. Where there is combat, it is a playful joust; where there is physical engagement, it is a carnal embrace.
In my creations, homosexual embraces and symbols of masculinity are unambiguously affirmed, offering a new perspective on representations of virility—distanced from colonizing violence, whether of territories or bodies, and from the unequal myth of the triumphant male hero.
My Fight: Responsibility, Cooperation, and Commitment
As an artist, I see myself as a cultural custodian, a bridge between epochs, bearing the responsibility of contributing to the activist spirit of our own time.
At the core of my practice lies the conviction that cooperation is as vital as competition in the creation and transmission of life. This responsibility is tempered by necessary humility: I cannot single-handedly address all the struggles faced by minority or persecuted communities on the basis of sex, gender, or consensual sexual practices. The battles to be fought are numerous in the face of rising ideologies seeking to confine women to traditional roles and LGBTQ+ individuals to invisibility—or worse, annihilation.
By acknowledging the specificity of each fight, I choose to focus on what I can offer through my own experiences, leaving others to lead their struggles and represent their unique realities, while standing as an unwavering ally.