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Gabriel García Román

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Gabriel García Román
Born1973 (1973)
Zacatecas
EducationCity College of New York
Websitewww.gabrielgarciaroman.com

Gabriel García Román (born 1973) is a Mexican-American photographer and visual artist based in New York City.[1] He is best known for his Queer Icons, QTPoC (Queer Trans People of Color) photography series.

Biography

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Born in Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1973, García Román and his family immigrated to the United States when he was two years old. He lived with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area for three years. At the age of five they moved to North Side of Chicago where he spent his formative years. Growing up in a Mexican working-class household he was always afraid of coming out to his family and hid his sexuality. This gave him a chance to blend into the background and observe life's smaller details.[2] At the age of twenty-six he moved to New York to reinvent himself and live life.[3]

Education

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García Román attended City College of New York where he received a Bachelors of Arts in studio art in 2012.[4]

Art works

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García Román weaves and integrates many styles from religious imagery to popular culture into his work to combat bias and push photography.[5] He grew up Catholic and was influenced by the painting and murals of the saints depicted in the cathedrals. These pieces had a strong connection with García Román and saw inspiration with them. He then combined this with his beliefs in the LGBTQ community in which he states they are the modern-day saints. His inspiration and the subjects he is drawn to speak highly of the diversity he brings to this series. The Queer Icon series caught many eyes and was highlighted in many news outlets like the National Public Radio (NPR) and the Huffington Post which sent a new wave of newfound diversity in these saint-like portraits.[6]

Queer Icons (QTPoC)

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Inspiration

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In this series you can see the inspiration from the works itself as one of the most notable aspects are the halo-like accents in most of the portraits. The form in which each person takes in looking outward in various positions, colors, and depth in which these people are portrayed further exemplifies not only the saints but the portrait styles. García Román was inspired by the portrait styles from Renaissance and Christian Orthodox painting. Some notable inspirations for Roman are Renaissance artist like Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, and Albrecht Dürer.[7]

Subjects

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García Román started to use friends and close acquaintances as the main focus in his art. As he entered this field, more subjects came to light through the means of social media like Tumblr and Instagram.[7] The QTPoC community is very well connected so finding subjects was not much of a challenge. García Román asks the subjects to wear something regal and empowering to their sense of self which adds to the power of the art. His subjects are usually excluded from religious communities and yet here in his art they are depicted in a religious way that gives them the representation that is much needed.[6]

Exhibitions

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Solo Exhibitions
Exhibitions Organization Location Date
Gabriel García Román Manifest Justice Los Angeles May 2- May 10, 2015[8]
Queer Icons Workshop LaGuardia Community College 31-10 Thomson Avenue

Long Island City, Queens

May 7, 2019[9]
Queer icons Hudson Valley LGBTQ+ Community

Center

300 Wall Street

Kingston, New York 12401

February 2020[10]
Queer Icons: A conversation

with Gabriel Garcia Roman

LGBTQ Center, Academic Centers / Institutes,

Office of Civic & Community Engagement

1834 Wake Forest Road Winston-Salem, NC 27106 February 28, 2017[11]
Queer Icons procession Leslie-Lohman Museum New York, NY 2019[12][failed verification]
Divinity: Queer Icons Middle Collegiate Church New York, NY 2018
Queer Icons digital mural Galeria de la Raza San Francisco, CA 2016[failed verification]
Group Exhibitions
Exhibition Organization Location Date
En Gender CassilHaus 6301 Mimosa Dr, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514 October 1st – December 3rd, 2017[13]
Portraits of Pride Queer eye X Gallery, 163 Malcolm X Blvd., Harlem June 2018[14]
Grafica America Museum of Latin American Art 628 Alamitos Ave, Long Beach, CA 90802 2019 [15]
Visceral Notion Center for Photography at Woodstock 59 Tinker St. NY 12498 Woodstock

845-6799957

February 11- March 2017[3][16]
Parallax: Revisioning Queer and

Trans People of Color in Photography

Photoville New York, NY 2019
In this body of mine Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design Milwaukee, WI 2019
Criminalize This!: The Social Policing of

Gender and the Criminalization of Queerness

Amos Eno Gallery Brooklyn, NY 2019
The Portrait is Political Gallery at BRIC House Brooklyn, NY 2019

Award, grants and residencies

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  • LMCC Workspace Residency – Lower Manhattan Cultural Counsel, 2019.
  • NFA Artist Grant – National Association of Latino Arts & Culture, 2018
  • Professional Printmaking Program, Self-Help Graphics Los Angeles CA, 2017[17]
  • Therese McCabe Ralston Connor Awards, 2008, 2009, 2010[18]

Further reading

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  • Singh, Maanvi (28 May 2015). "Not Your Mother's Catholic Frescoes: Radiant Portraits Of Queer People Of Color". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-05-10.
  • Brooks, Katherine (2015-05-19). "One Photographer Is Using Social Media To Celebrate 'Queer Icons' Of Color". HuffPost. Retrieved 2021-05-10.
  • Zeilinger, Julie (15 May 2015). "10 Stunning Images That Shatter Stereotypes About LGBTQ People of Color". Mic. Retrieved 2021-05-10.
  • "Photos of the Day: Multimedia series shines light on queer people of color". Feministing. 12 May 2015. Retrieved 2021-05-10.
  • Rivas, Jorge (30 April 2015). "Why This Artist Is Putting Religious Halos Around His Queer Subjects". Fusion. Retrieved 2021-05-10.

References

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  1. ^ "Gabriel Garcia Roman, Workspace 2019-20". LMCC. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  2. ^ "Interview with Gabriel Garcia Roman". The Pink Snout. 2015-06-12. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  3. ^ a b Strumfeld, Zan. "On The Cover: Gabriel Garcia Roman". Chronogram Magazine. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  4. ^ "Gabriel Garcia Roman". Words Without Borders. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  5. ^ "Gabriel Garcia Roman's 'Queer Icons' Series Depicts Modern-Day Saints | Out Magazine". www.out.com. 10 July 2017. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  6. ^ a b Morrissey, Megan Elizabeth (2017-07-03). "The Incongruities of Queer Decorum: Exploring Gabriel García Román's Queer Icons". Women's Studies in Communication. 40 (3): 289–303. doi:10.1080/07491409.2017.1346532. ISSN 0749-1409. S2CID 148735206.
  7. ^ a b "Q&A: Gabriel Garcia Roman". Strange Fire. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
  8. ^ "Gabriel Garcia Roman". www.manifestjustice.org. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  9. ^ "CUNY Events Calendar". Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  10. ^ "Art Show: Queer Icons – LGBTQ Community Center". Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  11. ^ "Queer Icons: A Conversation with Artist Gabriel Garcia Roman - Wake Forest University Events". events.wfu.edu. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  12. ^ "Gabriel Garcia Roman, Workspace 2019-20". LMCC. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  13. ^ "En | Gender". Cassilhaus. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  14. ^ "Portraits of pride". The Riverdale Press. 22 June 2018. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  15. ^ "Gráfica América". MOLAA | Museum of Latin American Art. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  16. ^ "Exhibition Visceral Notions - artist, news & exhibitions - photography-now.com". photography-now.com. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  17. ^ "Gabriel Garcia Roman, Workspace 2019-20". LMCC. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  18. ^ "Gabriel Garcia Roman". Gabriel Garcia Roman. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
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