Queer-art

Queer Art has had an important role in subverting repressive gender norms. Some common themes in contemporary queer art may include exploring gender and sexual identity, challenging societal norms and expectations, and promoting visibility and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community

Queer art folksonomy

• queer intimacy
• radical tenderness
• tender & grotesque
• reclaiming of personal queer archives
• intersectional identities
• direct representation
• delicate and haunting
• queer fantasy
• queer sensuality
• fluid identity
• physical objects anchoring the queer identity
• shifted narratives
• visceral effect
• euphoric queerness
• not sanitized bodies and gestures
• queer vulnerability
• homosociality
• female intimacy
• male intimacy
• alternative kinship
• female solidarity
• feminine alliance
• ambiguous embodiment
• aesthetics of indeterminacy
• double understanding
• secret vocabulary
• alternative epistemologies
• cognitive asymmetry
• unlearning socially constructed roles
• disruptive normativity
• anti-society-ism
• lack of a binary privilege
• counter-storytelling (casting doubt on the validity of permissible premises)

Queer artists

List of Queer Visual Artists from the second half of sec XX (born since 1960)

• Queer artists

  Alex Bodea

  Alexandra Ivanciu

  Apparatus 22

  Chlorys (Mihaela Vasiliu)

  Cornel Brudașcu

  Daniela Groza

  Gavril Pop

  Ileana Pașcalău

  Ioana Nemeș

  Katja Lee Eliad

  Liviu Bulea

  Mi Kafchin

  Miron Schmückle

  Simona Dumitriu & Ramona Dima

  Sorin Oncu

  Vasile Mureșan (Murivale)

  Ștefania Meșteriuc

List of Queer Visual Artists from the first half of sec XX (born since 1900 and 1960)

• Historical archive of Queer artists 1900-1960

Queering

Queering refers to a strategic approach used by artists that involves deliberately repositioning or altering existing objects, so that the audience are invited to look at them from a different perspective.

Queering the museums:

• Lumi Rațiu & Alex Bodea on

> Queering the MNAR European Art Gallery (at the National Museum of Art of Romania), Bucharest, 2026.

• Lumi Rațiu & Alex Bodea on

> Queering the Zambaccian Collection (at the National Museum of Art of Romania), Bucharest, 2026.

• Vlad Babenco on

> Queering the Brasov Museum, at the Muzeul de Artă Brașov, Brașov, 2023.

• Lumi Rațiu & Alex Bodea on

> Queering the Văcărești Monastery Frescoes (at the Casa Filipescu Cesianu Museum), Bucharest, 2026.

• Lumi Rațiu & Alex Bodea on

> Queering the Art Collections Museum (at the National Museum of Art of Romania), Bucharest, 2026.

Research context

Traditionally, art museums in Romania, with a little but perhaps insufficient exception at the national museum of contemporary art, actively avoid a critical discussion of methodological aspects of a queer perspective in interpreting, exhibiting, and organizing museum collections, preserving museum’s conservatory approaches in supporting “heteronormative” narratives that consolidate heterosexuality as a norm within social and cultural life. There is a need to investigate what non-normative or queer relations exist around art museum displays and collections, rethinking them through and with (de)colonial and other historical entanglements while not simply dwelling in the past but instead making connections to our present and futures. There are no queering strategy to make their collection more representative of queer people, or better represent gender and identity-related diversity. Attention should be give: queer should not be understood merely as a credible practice for museums that are officially labelled “gay” such as the Schwules Museum* in Berlin. This would be just the old practice of demarcation and segregation.

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Queer Archives (documentation on queer culture and history )

• Triumf Amiria, a nomadic, fluid and uninstitutionalised cultural museum focused on queer art, initiator: the artistic group KILOBASE BUCHAREST
• Romanian Queer History and Culture Museum, initiator: Florin Buhuceanu
• Romanian Lesbian archive, initiator: Alex Zorilă
• Polish Queer Muzeum Warszawa, an initiative by Lambda Warszawa, Poland’s oldest LGBTQ+ organization
• Polish Queer Archive Institute, initiator: Karol Radziszewski
• Forgotten Stories of Eastern European Queer Heroes: a project by Eastern Queerope, a journalistic network of queer writers, documenting forgotten LGBTQ+ figures from Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine
• Hungarian Labrisz Lesbian Herstory Archives and Censorship Museum
• Hungarian Hatter Archive
• Czech Collection of the Society for Queer Memory
• Commercialised mediated digital archive focused on Eastern-Europe
• Douglas Conrad LGBT Collection focused on Eastern Europe, held at Yale University, initiator: Douglas Conrad
• Bosnian Kvir Arhiv (Queer Archive Bosnia), initiator: Okvir association
• Serbian Arkadija Archive, initiator: Jelena Vasiljević
• Albanian HomeSpace Arkivi Queer Shqiptar, initiator: Safira Boeder
• Slovenian Lesbian Library and Archives
• Bulgarian Queer Archive

Queer art writings

Books

• Spații aparte (Particular spaces), by Alex Zorilă, in Romanian language, edited by Fractalia, 2023, ISBN: 978-606-9028-73-5, interviews with lesbian personalities from sec. XX/XXI Romania, a chapter is dedicated to visual arts

Spații aparte, by Alex Zorilă, 2026, photo by (c) Lumi Rațiu, 2026

Dezir, by Paula Dunker, Iulia Mocanu, Alecs Cândea, 2026, photo by (c) Lumi Rațiu, 2026

• Homoistorii: Ieșirea din invizibilitate (Homohistories: coming out of invisibility), by Florin Buhuceanu, in Romanian language, edited by Ed. Maiko 2011, reedited in 2016 by Humanitas, ISBN: 978-606-9028-73-5, a personal compendium based on historical memories, testimonies and research on the life of homosexual persons in XIX-XXI sec., some of the stories covered are about gay and lesbian visual artists
• Castele în Spania (Castles in Spain), by Petre Sirin, in Romanian language, edited by Humanitas, 2013, ISBN: 978-973-50-4031-4-X, a diaristical compendium based on Petre Sirin diary writings, selection made by editor; the book covers stories about the group around the visual artist George Tomaziu
• Dezir, in Romanian, a queer-erotica antology edited by Iulia Mocanu, Paula Dunker and Alecs Cândea, in Romanian language, edited by Fractalia, 2025, ISBN: 978-606-9028-95-7

Press articles

• VIMEO, by Mária Takács, video documentary on lesbian community in Budapest, including references and interview with lesbian artists, published in 2009
• ARTA magazine, Hello Goodbyee, by Cristina Bogdan, magazine article in Romanian and English language mentioning potential relation to queer art of the artistic duo The Melodramatic Bureau, Alina Popa and Irina Gheorghe, published in 2015
• ARTA magazine, Sub-styles: DIY Art Spaces, Interdisciplinarity and Hybrids, by Marta Jecu, written in collaboration with Berlin Art Link, magazine article mentioning potential queer art exploration at the now-closed artist run space Platforma, published in 2015
• ARTA magazine, The Xenofeminist Manifesto by Alina Popa, magazine article in Romanian and English language mentioning potential queer art exploration at various now-closed Romanian artist run spaces such as h.arta space and Tam Tam n Timișoara or Art Hub in Bucharest, 2016
• ARTA magazine, The Month of History – The Outsiders. SAVAGED pINK – (manifest) for an LGBT archive by Valentina Iancu, magazine article in Romanian and English language mentioning potential queer art archives, 2017; <<Note: recounted historical facts needs rechecking>> * ARTA magazine, The Month of History – The Outsiders. SAVAGED pINK – (manifest) for an LGBT archive (the article is mentioning the Sorin Oncu’s legacy (1980-2016), an artist from Timisoara politically active in the frivolous movement for LGBTs emancipation and feminist-queer initiatives such as GadjoDildo, a cabaret show played by Elena Duminică, Mihaela Drăgan and Zita Moldovan directed by Mihai Lukacs and choreographed by Paula Dunker at Macaz, or Daniela Groza performative interaction at Point space, Be good for real, a public performance of honesty, responsibility and courage in which Daniela, a female gay militant for kindness, invites anyone curious to enter in an open dialogue where limits were negotiated peacefully, as well as the significant initiative to reflect on the history of LGBTs in Romania, brought forth by SAVAGED pINK, an art exhibition opened at ODD space, run by Cristina Bogdan), published in 2017
• ARTA magazine, Queer Culture in Romania (I), by Valentina Iancu, a magazine article on the queer artist Sorin Oncu and Raluca Ilaria Demetrescu in the mid-2000s, published in 2017
• ARTA magazine, What Do The Mountains Hide?, by Valentina Iancu, , magazine article in Romanian and English language mentioning pre-queer art of the Ion Râmnic and István Mihály duo, with a retrospective organised by Ivan Gallery, published in 2018
• ARTA magazine, Arta „noastră” queer („Our queer art”), by Ladislav Zikmund-Lender, article in Romanian and English language on Czech queer art, published in 2018
• ARTA magazine, Formal Encounters, by Valentina Iancu, magazine article in Romanian and English language mentioning a queer curated exhibition at at that time at Bucharest based Nicodim Gallery, curated by by Ben Lee Ritchie Handler, showcasing queer and non-queer Romanian and foreign artists, published in 2018
• ARTA magazine, Against interpretation, by Gyula Muskovics, a magazine article about Tamás Király (1952-2013), a fashion designer from the underground Budapest gay scene, published in 2018
• ARTA magazine, Let’s talk performance art, by Marina Oprea, a magazine article in Romanian and English language, about queer performance artist Fairid Fairuz, published in 2018
• ARTA magazine, Self-Fulfiling Profecy, an interview with trans artist Mi Kafchin, by Valentina Iancu, published in 2018
• ARTA magazine, Queer Culture in Romania (II), by Valentina Iancu, a magazine article on the queer art scene in România, published in 2019
• ARTA magazine, “I have witchcraft in my blood too”, an interview with the artist Virginia Lupu, by Gyula Muskovics, published in 2019
• ARTA magazine, Chemtrails, a magazine article by Valentina Iancu, in Romanian and English language about a queer show at Nicodim Gallery in Los Angeles bringing together recent work from trans artist Mi Kafchin, published in 2019
• ARTA magazine, The State of the Romanian Avant-garde (I), a magazine article in Romanian and English language about the queer-feminist show "Lay me down across the lines", at Kunsthalle Bega, in Timisoara, Romanian, published in 2019
• ARTA magazine, Queering the East, by Valentina Iancu, a magazine article in Romanian and English language about the queer discourse in the west, with and about the East, focusing on the practice of queer archives, published in 2019
• ARTA magazine, The Revolution is Here and Now, the Revolution is Roma, Queer and Feminist, by Arman Heljic, a magazine article about the art practice of queer theater artist, Mihaela Drăgan, published in 2019
• ARTA magazine, What’s Left From My Heart, by Valentina Iancu, a magazine article in Romanian and English language about the queer-feminist group FCNN (Feminist Collective with No Name) and its activity in various places in Romanian and abroad, with referenes to the queer artists Simona Dumitriu, Raluca Croitoru and Ileana Faur, published in 2019
• ARTA magazine, Where Are You, Mircea Nicolae?, by Valentina Iancu, a magazine article in Romanian and English language about the queer artist Mircea Nicolae, published in 2020
• ARTA magazine, The Independent is Political, by Raluca Țurcanașu, a magazine article about the Moldovan art scene, with a small reference to the queer Moldovan documentarist and performer Artiom Zavadovschi (insta profile: https://www.instagram.com/das.miss.verstaendnis/), published in 2020
• ARTA magazine, Love Letter to Triumf Amiria Museum Workings, by Nora Ugron, a magazine article on the mini-exhibitions curated as part of the project TRIUMF AMIRIA: The Museum of Queer Culture, curated by Apparatus 22, published in 2020
• ARTA magazine, Inhabiting SUPRAINFINIT, by Maria Perșu, a magazine article in Romanian and English language about the queer art collective Apparatus 22’s solo exhibition Of Pleasure: The Learnings and Strange Fortunes of Atletica Ideal, published in 2023
• ARTA magazine, Queer Culture in Romania (IV). Tracing Queer Narratives in Romanian Time-Based Media Art, by Valentina Iancu, a magazine article in Romanian and English language on the contemporary “revolution” of queer time-based media art in România, in dialogue with the past, published in 2023.
• ARTA magazine, Timișoara and the Artists who have Changed the City Through their Initiatives, by Gabriela Mateescu, a documentation article about artist run spaces development in Timișoara, including few queer art spaces, such as h.art.timisoara, indecis and tam tam, published in 2023
• ARTA magazine, The h.arta Space, an interview with the coordinating artists of the queer h.arta space in Timisoara, România, published in 2024
• ARTA magazine, Hortensia Mi Kafchin and the Neo-Metaphysical Painting, by Gabriela Mateescu, a magazine article in Romanian and English language about the queer trans artist Mi Kafchin, who goes beyond virtuosity in a transgressive view of existential anguish: the authenticity of being, anxiety, depression, powerlessness in the face of the absurdity of the world, published in 2024
• ARTA magazine, Dear Danube, How Long Have You Survived?, by Marina Paladi, a magazine article in Romanian and English language about the queer artist Alex Mirutziu, published in 2025
• ARTA magazine, The Institution of Performance, by Marina Oprea, a magazine article about the performer Adriana Gheorghe’s program under the umbrella initiative of Theatres – an artist’s workspace, a public institution, a site for research, presentation, for finished or in progress works, which constantly includes various queer performance artists in the program, published in 2025
• ARTA magazine, Queer Timing After the Wall, by Göksu Kunak, a magazine article theorising about queer dance - queer performance practices, published in 2025.
• ARTA magazine, Conversations on Invisibility & Artistic Bodybuilding, by Cristina Stoenescu, a magazine article in Romanian and English language about the artist group KILOBASE BUCHAREST curating a major queer art show in România, on institutional critique and political unrest, where the solution is queer and poetic, enabling a space of commons and explorations, with artists such as works of Apparatus 22, Maria Balea, Lucian Barbu, Alex Bodea, Ștefan Botez, Alex Horghidan, Gavril Pop, and Sofia Zadar, published in 2025.
• ARTA magazine, Conversations on Invisibility & Artistic Bodybuilding, by Cristina Stoenescu, a magazine article in Romanian and English language, touching the theorised notion of queer negativity, published in 2026.