A navigation through the queer black experience. I investigate the spectacle and power dynamics of looking by depicting otherwise ignored bodies in art history through constructed collage paintings with materials such as textiles, beads, and oil paint. Through painting, collage, and sculpture I represent queer blackness—specifically a space that is made of trauma and bliss blossoming from the erotic.

Darian Deshawn Stewart (He/ Him)

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A component of all the senses combines how these moments of the erotic play a part in the queer black bodies—especially my queer black body, navigating through space and experiences. The space can be the queer black underground parties, intimate backstage rooms, boudoirs, or domestic spaces. The erotic plays a huge factor in the queer black experience. A source of power that allows excellence to be fulfilled. The erotic is seen in queer black culture as just a taste of the internal satisfaction. This satisfaction relies on control, an internal power and how to then use this dynamic to navigate through daily experiences. An installation that confronts and celebrates through materials, mimic dreamlike escapism, and use the concept of color as a metaphor for representation. From the black columns understanding black as a color and not darkness, to the relationship of vivid colors that corresponds to the trails of this constructed safe space. . The viewer can step inside with me. Engulfed in trauma, the paintings are surrounded by a thick black substance that represent the trials of this life; oozing from the ceiling and walls. Engulfed in a space, taken over by the senses, come inside my world.

Darian Deshawn Stewart is an interdisciplinary artist based in Manhattan, New York. Originally born and raised in Hardy, Arkansas. Darian attended Arkansas State University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in both Graphic Design and Fine Arts. Moving directly towards Graduate school, Darian is now pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts degree at Parsons The New School. Darian has exhibited at The Bradbury Art Museum at Arkansas State University, Parsons E 25Th|13th street, and the Window Show at The New School. Darian loves spending time with his daughter, exploring the outdoors, and being a fashionable butch queen!