This is a list of

notable Notability is the property of being worthy of notice, having fame, or being considered to be of a high degree of interest, significance, or distinction. It also refers to the capacity to be such. Persons who are notable due to public responsibi ...

visual artists The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...

who are

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

or otherwise

non-heterosexual Non-heterosexual is a word for a sexual orientation or sexual identity that is not heterosexual. The term helps define the "concept of what is the norm and how a particular group is different from that norm". ''Non-heterosexual'' is used in femi ...

. This list covers artists known for the creation of visual art such as drawings, paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations, performance works and video works. The entries are in alphabetical order by surname. Birth and death dates are included. All new additions to this list should include a reference.

B

Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al ...

(1960-1988), USA *

Alison Bechdel Alison Bechdel ( ; born September 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist. Originally known for the long-running comic strip ''Dykes to Watch Out For'', she came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her graphic memoir ''Fun Home'', which ...

(born 1960), USA * Joan E. Biren (born 1944), USA *

Rora Blue Rora Blue is an American visual artist, fashion designer, and model (person), model. Their work primarily focuses on sexuality, gender, and disability. They are well-known for The Unsent Project and After the Beep. Blue's work primarily takes ...

(born ), USA *

Rosa Bonheur Rosa Bonheur (born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur; 16 March 1822 – 25 May 1899) was a French artist known best as a painter of animals ( animalière). She also made sculpture in a realist style. Her paintings include '' Ploughing in the Nivernais'', fi ...

(1822–1899), FRA *

Joe Brainard Joe Brainard (March 11, 1942 – May 25, 1994) was an American artist and writer associated with the New York School. His prodigious and innovative body of work included assemblages, collages, drawing, and painting, as well as designs for book ...

(1942-1994), USA *

Scott Burton Scott Burton (June 23, 1939 – December 29, 1989) was an American sculptor and performance artist best known for his large-scale furniture sculptures in granite and bronze. Early years Burton was born in Greensboro, Alabama to Walter Scott Bu ...

(1938-1989)

C

* Cathy Cade (born 1942), USA *

Paul Cadmus Paul Cadmus (December 17, 1904 – December 12, 1999) was an American artist widely known for his egg tempera paintings of gritty social interactions in urban settings. He also produced many highly finished drawings of single nude male figures ...

(1904-1999), USA *

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

(1571-1610), Italy *

Tammy Rae Carland Tammy Rae Carland (born January 27, 1965), is a photographer, video artist, zine editor, current provost at California College of the Arts (CCA), and former co-owner of the independent lesbian music label Mr. Lady Records and Videos. Her work has ...

(born 1965), USA *

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

(1889-1963), France * Liz Collins (born), USA * Frank Coombs (1906-1941), GBR *

Enrico Corte Enrico Corte (; born 21 June 1963) is an Italian contemporary artist. He works in the fields of painting, sculpture, drawing, video art and photography. His exhibitions often include multimedia installations that mix diverse genres and form relat ...

(born 1963), Italy

D

TM Davy TM Davy (born 1980) is a New York-based painter. Davy paints and draws in the style of social realism and portraiture, recognizable for his keen sense of light and color depicting both the human and non-human. Early life and education Davy was b ...

(Born 1980), USA *

Jimmy De Sana Jimmy DeSana (November 12, 1949 – July 27, 1990) was an American artist, and a key figure in the East Village punk art and New wave music, New Wave scene of the 1970s and 1980s. DeSana's photography has been described as "anti-art" in its ap ...

(1949-1990), USA *

Raúl de Nieves Raul de Nieves (born 1983, Michoacán, Mexico) is a multimedia artist, performer, and musician. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Early life De Nieves grew up in Michoacán, Mexico. His father passed away when de Nieves was two. Several ...

(born 1983), Mexico *

Beauford Delaney Beauford Delaney (December 30, 1901 – March 26, 1979) was an American modernist painter. He is remembered for his work with the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as his later works in abstract expressionism following his move ...

(1901-1979), USA * Jaiden Dittfach (born 1997), USA *

Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Republic of Florence, Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sculpture and use ...

(-1466), Italy * Angela Dufresne (born 1969), USA *

Chloe Dzubilo Chloe Dzubilo (December 5, 1960 – February 18, 2011) was an American artist, musician, and transgender activist. She was born in Connecticut. Dzubilo was a fixture of the 1980s and 1990s New York City club and art scene: she briefly worked at S ...

(1960-2011), USA

E

Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artists. For the length ...

(1844-1916) USA *

Rafa Esparza rafael esparza (born in 1981) is an American performance artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. His work includes performances affecting his physical well-being and installations constructed from adobe bricks. Esparza often works with collab ...

(born 1981), USA

F

Lola Flash Lola Flash (born 1959) is an American photographer whose work has often focused on social, LGBT and feminist issues. An active participant in ACT UP during the time of the AIDS epidemic in New York City, Flash was notably featured in the 1989 "Ki ...

(born 1959), USA *

Eve Fowler Eve Fowler (born 1964) is an American Artist based in Los Angeles. Fowler was born in Philadelphia, PA and has been living and working in Los Angeles since 2002. Fowler's most notable work includes her series of texts appropriating Gertrude Stein' ...

(born 1964), USA *

Louis Fratino Louis Fratino (born 1993) is an American visual artist. Education Fratino graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD in 2015. Fratino was a recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Painting, Berlin, 2015–2016 a ...

(born 1993), USA *

Jared French Jared French (February 4, 1905 – January 8, 1988) was an American painter who specialized in the medium of egg tempera. He was one of the artists attributed to the style of art known as magic realism along with contemporaries George Tooker ...

(1905-1988), USA *

Richard Fung Richard Fung (born 1954) is a video artist, writer, public intellectual and theorist who currently lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. He was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and is openly gay. Fung is a professor at OCAD University. He earned a ...

(born 1954), TTO/CAN

G

Yishay Garbasz Yishay Garbasz (born 1970, Israel) is an interdisciplinary artist who works in the fields of photography, performance and installation. Her main field of interest is trauma and the inheritance of post-traumatic memory. She also works on issues of i ...

(born 1970) *

Chitra Ganesh Chitra Ganesh (born 1975) is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Ganesh's work across media includes: charcoal drawings, digital collages, films, web projects, photographs, and wall murals. Ganesh draws from mythology, literature, and popu ...

(born 1975), USA *

Jeffrey Gibson Jeffrey A. Gibson (born 1972)''U.S. Public Records Index'' Vol. 2 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010. is an American Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee painter, and sculptor. He has lived and worked in Brooklyn; Hudson, New York; and Ge ...

(born 1972), USA * Joseph Glasco (1925-1996), USA *

Nash Glynn Nash Glynn (born 1992) is an American artist working in painting, photography, and video. She is known for her nude self-portraits and minimalist landscapes and still lives. She frequently depicts herself in her paintings using a simple palette ...

(born 1992), USA *

Robert Gober Robert Gober (born September 12, 1954) is an American sculptor. His work is often related to domestic and familiar objects such as sinks, doors, and legs. Early life and education Gober was born in Wallingford, Connecticut and studied literat ...

(born 1954), USA *

Krzysztof Gonciarz Krzysztof Jan Gonciarz (born 19 June 1985) is an internet creator, filmmaker, and YouTuber, responsible of the channels ''Zapytaj Beczkę'', ''Krzysztof Gonciarz'', and ''TheUwagaPies'' on YouTube. He is the owner and creator of Japanese-based ...

(born 1985), POL *

Félix González-Torres Félix González-Torres (November 26, 1957 – January 9, 1996) was a Cuban-born American visual artist. González-Torres's openly gay sexual orientation was influential in his work as an artist. González-Torres was known for his minimal inst ...

(1957-1996) * Nancy Grossman (born 1940), USA *

Sonali Gulati Sonali Gulati is an Indian Americans, Indian American independent filmmaker, feminist, grass-roots activist, and educator. Gulati grew up in New Delhi, India. Her mother, a teacher and textile designer, raised her independently, getting singl ...

(born 1972), IND/USA

H

Barbara Hammer Barbara Jean Hammer (May 15, 1939 – March 16, 2019) was an American feminist film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer. She is known for being one of the pioneers of the lesbian film genre, and her career spanned over 50 years. Hamm ...

(1939 - 2019) USA *

Harmony Hammond Harmony Hammond (born February 8, 1944 in Hometown, Illinois) is an American artist, activist, curator, and writer. She was a prominent figure in the founding of the feminist art movement in 1970's New York. Early life and education Harmony Ha ...

(born 1944), USA *

Michelle Handelman Michelle Handelman (born 1960) is an American video installation artist, filmmaker, photographer, performance artist, writer and professor. She is an associate professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Fashion Institute of Technology (FI ...

(born 1960), USA *

Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...

(1958 - 1990), USA *

Sadao Hasegawa was a Japanese graphic artist known for creating homoerotic fetish art. His works are noted for their extensive detail, elaborate fantasy settings, and for their juxtaposition of elements from Japanese, Balinese, Thai, Tibetan Buddhist, Afric ...

(1945-1999), Japan *

Geoffrey Hendricks Geoffrey Hendricks (July 30, 1931 in Littleton, New Hampshire – May 12, 2018) was an American artist associated with Fluxus since the mid 1960s. He was professor emeritus of art at Rutgers University, where he taught from 1956 to 2003 and was ass ...

(1931-2018), USA *

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

(born 1937), Great Britain *

Marie Høeg Marie Høeg (15 April 1866 – 22 February 1949) was a Norwegians, Norwegian photographer and Suffragette, suffragist. Høeg's published work was traditional in nature, while her private photography, including images of and created with her p ...

(1866 - 1949), Norway *

Boscoe Holder Boscoe Holder (16 July 1921 – 21 April 2007), born Arthur Aldwyn Holder in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago, was Trinidad and Tobago's leading contemporary painter, who also had a celebrated international career spanning six decades as a designer and ...

(1921-2007), Trinidad and Tobago *

Every Ocean Hughes Every Ocean Hughes (born 1977), formerly known as Emily Roysdon, is a New York and Stockholm based artist and writer, currently a Professor of Art at Konstfack in Stockholm, Sweden. Hughes is a multimedia interdisciplinary artist, using performanc ...

(born 1977), USA *

Johanna Hedva Johanna Hedva (born 1984) is a Korean Americans, Korean American contemporary artist, writer, and musician. They are the author of the 2018 novel ''On Hell'', and ''Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain'', a collection of poetry, plays, and essays ...

(born 1984), USA *

Peter Hujar Peter Hujar (October 11, 1934 – November 26, 1987) was an American photographer best known for his black and white portraits. He has been recognized posthumously as a major American photographer of the late-twentieth century. Yet Hujar's work r ...

(1934-1987), USA

J

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

(born 1930), USA *

Jess Jess is a unisex given name, often a short form (hypocorism) of Jessica, Jesse, Jessie, etc., and a surname. It may refer to: Given name * Jess Atkinson (born 1961), American football player * Jess Cain (1926–2008), American radio host * Jes ...

(1923-2004), USA

K

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, ...

(1907-1954), Mexico * Katlego Kai Kolanyane-Kesupile (born 1988), Botswana * Ben Kimura (1947-2003), JapanKiss and Tell collective, CAN * Brian Kenny, GER *

Anna Elizabeth Klumpke Anna Elizabeth Klumpke (October 28, 1856 – February 9, 1942) was an American portrait and Genre works, genre painter born in San Francisco, California, United States. She is perhaps best known for her portraits of famous women including Elizab ...

(1856-1942), USA/FRA *

Eardley Knollys (Edward) Eardley Knollys (1902–1991) was a member of the Bloomsbury Group of artists - variously an art critic, art dealer and collector, active from the 1920s to 1950s. He only himself began to paint in 1949, and had his first solo exhibi ...

(1902–1991), GBRJennings, Clive (14 June 2013) Retrieved 8 October 2020

L

Doron Langberg Doron Langberg (born 1985) is an American painter. Langberg paints in the style of genre painting and portraiture and addresses issues of gender and sexuality by making love and desire a shared experience through the surface and subjects of his pa ...

(born 1985) Israel *

Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt (born 1948) is an American artist who took part in the Stonewall riots. History Lanigan-Schmidt's artwork incorporates materials such as tinsel, foil, cellophane, saran wrap and glitter, embracing kitsch and intentionally ...

(born 1948), USA *

Greer Lankton Greer Lankton (April 21, 1958 – November 18, 1996), was an American artist known for creating lifelike sewn dolls that were often modeled on friends or celebrities and posed in elaborate theatrical settings. She was a key figure in the East ...

(1958-1996), USA *

Joe Lycett Joe Harry Lycett, also known by the self-given moniker Mummy, is an English comedian, painter and television presenter. Known for his sardonically camp style, whimsical public stunts and elaborate set designs, Lycett has been described as one ...

(born 1988) UK *

George Platt Lynes George Platt Lynes (April 15, 1907 – December 6, 1955) was an American fashion photography, fashion and advertising, commercial photographer who worked in the 1930s and 1940s. He produced photographs featuring many gay artists and writers from ...

(1907-1955), USA

M

Julie Mehretu Julie Mehretu (born November 28, 1970) is an Ethiopian American contemporary visual artist, known for her multi-layered paintings of abstracted landscapes on a large scale. Her paintings, drawings, and prints depict the cumulative effects of urban ...

(born 1970), Ethiopia *

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

(1475-1564), Italy *

Kate Millett Katherine Murray Millett (September 14, 1934 – September 6, 2017) was an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She attended Oxford University and was the first American woman to be awarded a degree with first-class honor ...

(1934–2017), USA *

Allyson Mitchell Allyson Mitchell is a Toronto-based maximalist artist, working predominantly in sculpture, installation and film. Her practice melds feminism and pop culture to trouble contemporary representations of women, sexuality and the body largely through ...

, CAN *

Kent Monkman Kent Monkman (born 13 November 1965) is a Canadian First Nations artist of Cree ancestry. He is a member of the Fisher River band situated in Manitoba's Interlake Region. He is both a visual as well as performance artist, working in a variety ...

(born 1965), Canada *

Slava Mogutin Slava Mogutin (full name Yaroslav Yurievich Mogutin, b. April 12, 1974, Kemerovo) is a New York-based Russian artist and author, who works across different media, including photography, video, text, installation, sculpture, and painting. Life ...

(born 1974), Russia

O

Catherine Opie Catherine Sue Opie (born 1961) is an American fine-art photographer and educator. She lives and works in Los Angeles, as a professor of photography at University of California at Los Angeles. Opie studies the connections between mainstream and i ...

(born 1961), USA

P

* Oren Pinhassi (born 1985), Israel * Maria E. Piñeres (born 1966), COL *

Jody Pinto Jody Pinto (born 1942) is an American environmental artist internationally known for her site-specific public works. In her works as an artist she has over 40 collaborations around the world including the US, Japan, and Israel. In her work as a f ...

(born 1942), USA *

Poliziano Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini (14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known by his nickname Poliziano (; anglicized as Politian; Latin: '' Politianus''), was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scho ...

(1454-1494), Italy *

Jill Posener Jill Posener (born 1953) is a British photographer and playwright, known for her exploration of lesbian identity and erotica. Early life and education Posener was born in Greenwich, London, in the United Kingdom. She was educated as a st ...

(born 1953), GBR

Q

* Wayne Douglas Quinn (born 1941), USA. *

George Quaintance George Quaintance (June 3, 1902 – November 8, 1957) was an American artist, famous for his "idealized, strongly homoerotic" depictions of men in mid-20th-century physique magazines.Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

(1925-2008), USA

S

Annie Sprinkle Annie M. Sprinkle (born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954) is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Citing: Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, femi ...

(born 1954), USA * Sal Salandra (born 1946), USA

T

Gengoroh Tagame is a pseudonymous Japanese manga artist. Regarded as the most influential creator in the gay manga genre, he has produced over 20 books in four languages over the course of his nearly four decade-long career. Tagame began contributing manga ...

(born 1964), JapanTim Tate (born 1960), USA *

Wolfgang Tillmans Wolfgang Tillmans (born 16 August 1968) is a German photographer. His diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. Tillmans was the first photog ...

(born 1968), Germany * Ken Tisa (born 1945), USA *

Mickalene Thomas Mickalene Thomas (born January 28, 1971) is a contemporary African-American visual artist best known as a painter of complex works using rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel.

(born 1971), USA *

Tom of Finland Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist who made stylized highly masculinized homoerotic art, and influenced late 20th-century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential ...

(1920-1991), Finland *

George Tooker George Clair Tooker, Jr. (August 5, 1920 – March 27, 2011) was an American figurative painter. His works are associated with Magic realism, Social realism, Photorealism, and Surrealism. His subjects are depicted naturally as in a photograp ...

(1920-2011), USA *

Salman Toor Salman Toor (born 1983) is a Pakistani-born American painter. His works depict the imagined lives of young men of South Asian-birth, displayed in close range in either South Asia and New York City fantasized settings. Toor lives and works in New ...

(born 1983), Pakistan/USA *

Yannis Tsarouchis Yannis Tsarouchis ( el, Γιάννης Τσαρούχης; 13 January 1910 – 20 July 1989) was a Greek modernist painter and set designer who achieved international fame, and was "known in particular for his homoerotic subjects," including so ...

(1910-1989), Greece

V

Stephen Varble Stephen Lloyd Varble (1946 – January 6, 1984) was a notorious American performance artist, playwright, and Fashion design, fashion designer in lower Manhattan during the 1970s. His work challenged both mainstream conceptions of gender and ex ...

, USA *

Del LaGrace Volcano Del LaGrace Volcano (born July 26, 1957) is an American artist, performer, and activist from California. A formally trained photographer, Volcano's work includes installation, performance and film and interrogates the performance of gender on seve ...

(born 1957), USA

W

* WangShui (born 1986), USA *

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

(1928-1987), USA * Ambera Wellmann (born 1982), Canada *

Kehinde Wiley Kehinde Wiley (born February 28, 1977)"Kehinde Wiley"
''Artnet''. Retrieved October 13, 2010. i ...

(born 1977), USA * Jimmy Wright (born 1944), USA *

David Wojnarowicz David Michael Wojnarowicz ( (September 14, 1954 – July 22, 1992) was an American painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, songwriter/recording artist, and AIDS activist prominent in the East Village art scene. He incorp ...

(1954-1992), USA

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:LGBT Artists

Artists An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, the ...

LGBT artists, list of