10 Exciting LGBTQ+ Artists to Watch Out for in 2022

Explore the dazzling photography, painting, lettering, and more from queer artists around the world, to brighten up your Instagram feed this Pride month and beyond

The visual arts have long been a part of exploring queer life: from subtle suggestions in paintings during times when homosexuality was widely criminalized, to the raw liberation of protest art. As contemporary LGBTQ+ artists continue to express themes of love, loss, resistance, and resilience, social platforms like Instagram have seen explosions of queer art.

The artists below portray both the big and small moments in LGBTQ+ life and beyond. Working across painting, digital art, lettering, photography, and more, these ten artists—some established, some rising—are well worth a follow.

1. Naima Green

Naima Green (@naimagreen) is a photographer, artist, and lecturer from New York City. She has exhibited extensively around New York and other US states. The image below is from PURᐧSUIT, a deck of 54 playing cards that features group and individual portraits of queer people, including cis, trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming models. They’re shot around eye-level, creating a compassionate and intimate lens.

2. FEWOCiOUS

Nineteen-year-old FEWOCiOUS, a.k.a. Victor Langlois (@fewocious) shot to fame last year for crashing the Christie's website with a collection of five paintings that were available as NFTs. Since then, he has gone from strength to strength with drops of digital art that range from 2D paintings to 3D animations.

This Pride month he collaborated with Billboard magazine to create a custom cover, and launched a clothing line with mental health brand Madhappy, with net profits going to the Born This Way Foundation supporting LGBTQ+ community centers in the US.

3. David Ayllon

Fans of Ru Paul’s Drag Race might already be familiar with the work of this US-based photographer. David Ayllon (@davidayllon) is a creative director, graphic designer, and photographer with a passion for superheroes and bold imagery.

His work has been featured in Huffington Post, Creative Quarterly, Playboy Magazine, and more. Some of his past clients include Elvira and Todrick Hall, as well as Drag Race winners Trixie Mattel and Sasha Velour.

Keep an eye out for his upcoming pop culture portrait photography course, launching on Domestika this month.

4. Salman Toor

Salman Toor’s (@salman.toor) work feels like you are looking into his subjects’ lives through a window. Toor was born in Pakistan and now lives in New York, where he studied his MFA. His work has been exhibited internationally.

Many of his earth-toned works are in oil, combining classical techniques with a sketch-y look that adds dynamism and a friendly atmosphere. Subjects play on their phones, laugh, and dance together in moments of connection and simplicity.

5. Ximena Jiménez

Ximena Jiménez (@jimenezlettering) is a Colombian graphic designer who specializes in lettering and teaches a course on script lettering here at Domestika. She has worked designing clothing, branding, and large-scale murals as can be seen below. Her clients include Facebook, Nokia, Nescafé, and The Washington Post.

Ximena’s Instagram is packed with color and expressive shapes that convey uplifting messages. Over the last few years she has collaborated with other artists to produce Pride-themed sticker packs with suitably rainbow-hued slogans.

6. Jeffrey Gibson

Another go-to inspiration for color and the joyful expression of powerful words is Jeffrey Gibson (@jeffrune). This American Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee artist works with multimedia including paint and beadwork, to create tactile pieces that celebrate Indigenous heritage and tackle other issues of identity and visibility.

Many of his works feature words arranged from multicolored shapes that command your attention as you decode what they say.

7. Isadora Zeferino

Voted as one of the 100 best international illustrators by TASCHEN, Isadora Zeferino (@imzeferino) has the ability to transmit unique emotions through her floral-inspired works. You can find her work on social media, book covers, and work for clients such as Faber-Castell and Wacom.

In her Domestika course, she teaches how to illustrate a portrait incorporating botanical elements via digital techniques. Isadora shared the below image a couple of years back on her Twitter account, noting “the b is not silent, happy #pride”.

8. Sarah Zapata

Sarah Zapata (@sylk_z) is a Peruvian-American artist who unites cozy craft with sensuality in her fiber-based works. Peruvian and American weaving techniques come together in her sculptures and installations that fill spaces with texture. From rugs to wall-hangings to sculptural objects, her work bursts with color. On the side of making art, she organizes drag king nights under the persona Jesus Zapato.

9. Vic Lentaigne

Another photographer who masters the intimate portrait is Vic Lentaigne (@viclentaigne), who also DJs in London. Her clients include British Vogue, Dazed, and many more.

Soft colors and natural lighting abound in her work, and she aims to “explore themes of gender fluidity, queerness, identity and self-expression with a sense of quiet emotion,” according to her website.

10. Fabián Cháirez

Finally, Fabián Cháirez (@fabian_chairez) is a painter whose work shot to fame (and maybe infamy) when a feminized portrait of revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata faced backlash and was partially hidden while on display in Mexico City. He questions and plays with ideas of national identity, religion, and sexuality in provocative oil paintings that include everyone from nuns to wrestlers.

Were you familiar with any of these amazing artists? Who else would you add to the list? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Explore more queer art

1. Enjoyed learning about these rising artists? Learn about seven world famous artists who have also explored LGBTQ+ identities in their work.

2. We’ve got more Instagram inspiration for you: check out these amazing queer photography accounts.

3. Learn more about how camp became a queer aesthetic in this explainer.