Darian Stewart

Artist Statement

As a queer Black man, the erotic worlds I occupy blur the lines between pleasure and fear. Visualizing these contradictory phenomena are at the center of my artistic practice. Poet and activist, Essex Hemphill once recognized this phenomena when he spoke about the “dangerous places black gay men are often willing to go in the name of love or desire.” Exploring underground parties, intimate backstage rooms, boudoirs, or other spaces overflowing with lust, risk, pain, and pleasure has called me to envision a sexually liberated world. Through figurative, constructed collage paintings that include beads, plastic, fabric, rhinestones, paper, textiles, and oil paint, I create compositions of spaces informed by the trauma and bliss that arises from the erotic. As a painter, I employ ethnographic methods in which I interview subjects from my community and explore issues such as: homophobia, transphobia, homicides, suicide, abuse, HIV Awarness, and police brutality. In these queer utopias, trauma doesn’t define the subjects, but rather deepens their experience of pleasure. My work has allowed me to explore the dangers of queer life through a lens of empowerment that turns the erotic into a celebratory black moment, giving the viewer something in return: a vision of sexual revolution.