The Bureau of Queer Art

Leah Cupino (Erratic Grace) — IMMORTAL Leah Cupino makes work that refuses to sit still. In this episode, we talk about the ofrenda she built for IMMORTAL —how it traveled from the street to the top floor like a Queer procession, like a public prayer that kept climbing. We get into impermanence, devotion, survival-with-style, and the kind of beauty that doesn’t pretend it will last forever… but st...

Baltimore showed up in Mexico City. At IMMORTAL Queer Art Fair, I sat down with Nancy K. Blackwell, owner + director of Quid Nunc Art Gallery (Baltimore), and we talked about the question every artist is already living inside: What now? Quid Nunc is a gallery built as a bridge—between emerging artists and collectors, between community and visibility, between “safe space” and real-world action. Nan...

Paradiso’s work is slow on purpose. Quilts built from construction-site materials. Embroidered bodies that make looking feel different. Pansies stitched on leather—soft, tough, tender, defiant. It’s queer history told with thread, and it doesn’t ask for permission. The feature is live on Substack. The podcast is live now. Read + listen—then send it to the friend who needs a reminder that endurance...

Eva Mueller came to IMMORTAL the way some people walk into a storm: fully dressed, totally intentional, and a little thrilled by the danger. In this new interview from IMMORTAL (Día de Muertos, CDMX) , Eva (NYC) admits what a lot of us won’t say out loud: she wanted Day of the Dead her whole life—so when TBQA built a queer art fair inside that ritual season, she said count me in before the ink was...

Briheda didn’t come to Mexico City to “show work.” She came to close a chapter. In this new interview from IMMORTAL (Día de Muertos, CDMX) , Briheda —traveling in from Belize —drops the kind of truth that makes a room go quiet: before she arrived, she was literally digging her own grave as an act of rebellion and self-celebration. Not metaphor. Dirt. Shovel. Ritual. And then: the pivot. The rebirt...

Courtney came to IMMORTAL nervous. Not about the quality. About the cultural gravity of what he was bringing into the room. And then he did the thing great artists do: he stopped trying to “get it right” and started trying to be true. In this new interview, Courtney (@absalom_fineart) talks about the pivot that changed everything—how soul-searching and Mexican heritage collided with his ballet bac...

Jaimes Mayhew doesn’t make “maps.” They make portals. In this short interview from IMMORTAL , Mayhew talks about queer and trans mapping as something way more alive than coordinates and gridlines: a practice built from trust, workshops, inside jokes, conflict, tenderness, and the radical act of imagining together. Their maps don’t say “you are here.” They say: we could be elsewhere—if we build it....

At IMMORTAL, Eva Mueller didn’t offer one self — she offered six. Six characters, six emotional frequencies, six ways of refusing the flattening of queer identity. In her interview, she introduces them like a cast of inner revolutionaries. Vani Dada, eternally vain and unbothered by time. Paloma Escura, the freedom fighter who eats small minds for breakfast. Don Doble, the bisexual joke of patriar...

Vicki Khuzami doesn’t tiptoe into queer art — she cartwheels in with boys, toys, humor, and a collector’s hunger that borders on mythic. Vicki Khuzami no entra de puntitas al arte queer — entra dando volteretas, con muchachos, juguetes, humor y un hambre de coleccionar que roza lo mítico. In this interview excerpt, she walks us through her world: tiny erotic drawings, the House of Dolores series,...

Some artists work with memory like tension. Algunxs artistas trabajan la memoria como tensión. In IMMORTAL 2025, Leslie threads fiber, childhood, and survival. En IMMORTAL 2025, Leslie entrelaza fibra, infancia y supervivencia. Bodies stretched by thread — adaptation made visible. Cuerpos estirados por hilos — la adaptación hecha visible. Her three-dimensional boxes echo a childhood in Venezuela....

Laura Ortiz Vega no solo crea arte—ella negocia entre mundos. Laura Ortiz Vega doesn’t just make art—she negotiates between worlds. Sus universos bordados y con cuentas son colisiones de lo ritual y lo Pop, de los ancestros y los punks callejeros, de lo sagrado y lo escandaloso. Her beaded, stitched universes are collisions of ritual and Pop, ancestors and street punks, the sacred and the scandalo...

SoHo Project Space NYC brought their signature blend of sensuality, body, and boldness to IMMORTAL — showing how art can bridge cultures, languages, and desires. Their presence reminded us that visibility is not a trend; it’s a responsibility we share across borders. En este video, @sohoprojectspacenyc nos da la bienvenida a su exhibición en IMMORTAL, celebrando el cuerpo humano, lo erótico, lo sa...

From the heart of Mexico City, Dossier @dossier_art - sits down with The Bureau of Queer Art (TBQA) to talk about the birth of IMMORTAL , Mexico’s first Queer Art Fair. Desde el corazón de la Ciudad de México, Dossier conversa con The Bureau of Queer Art (TBQA) sobre el nacimiento de IMMORTAL , la primera feria de arte queer en México. Between ofrendas, bodies, and collective memory, we explore ho...

“I wanted the ofrenda to rise, to move the way glaciers move—slow, unstoppable, reshaping everything in their path. From the street to the top floor, it became a kind of queer pilgrimage. Each piece—stone, plastic, fabric—was a record of transformation, a reminder that what we build together can shift, melt, and still carry beauty. The installation was never meant to be static. Like us, it was alw...

Baroque and Butchered is the cover of Vol 10: Dismantled — a delirious feast of beauty, gore, and gallows humor from Robert Rausch and Oona Nelson. Think Rembrandt colliding with John Waters in a butcher shop: chandeliers, carcasses, fat suits, and live pigs crashing history painting. Vol 10: Dismantled will be available as a free digital download on September 1, 2025 at BureauQueerArt.com and on...

Cortney Mansanarez’s solo show Coloring Is... captures queer joy, movement, and vulnerability in bold, expressive portraits of the male form. This ongoing photo series invites us to color outside the lines—where mess, gesture, and light meet in a celebration of queer embodiment. You can view the full exclusive online at Artsy.net, with new works added biweekly. If you're in Baltimore, don’t mi...

In this bilingual episode of InResidency , artist Majo Martínez joins us for a moving conversation about trans identity, grief, and the role of art as both ritual and resistance. Speaking in both English and Spanish (with subtitles available on YouTube), Majo reflects on their transition, their practice as a weaver and photographer, and the visual metaphors that help them process loss, blindness,...

A conversation on queer visibility, analog nostalgia, and surviving the algorithm—one photograph at a time. In this episode of INresidency: Queer & Allied Creatives, photographer Michael Epps joins us from Charleston, SC, to talk about the evolution of his practice—from shooting 120mm film in New York to quietly subverting Instagram’s shadowbans. We discuss his love of black and white photogra...

In this episode of InResidency , we sit down with Stephen Baboon—photographer, performer, and founder of Native Fruits Collective—to talk about queerness, Haiti, and the radical tenderness in his work. Baboon shares how his layered identity as a queer Haitian artist with Middle Eastern roots informs everything from his commercial collaborations to his fine art practice. “I create in that in-betwee...

In this episode, Jorge Tejeda joins us for a moving conversation about queerness, emotion, and the power of drawing the male body with both strength and softness. We talk about his training in architecture, his influences—from Schiele to contemporary dance—and the deeply personal process behind his series Summer Blues , including the featured work Boy with a Gold Earring . You can read the full in...

In this powerful conversation, multi-hyphenate artist Lady Zen joins The Bureau of Queer Art to reflect on their acclaimed film What’s in a Name , a poetic and unflinching exploration of gender, identity, and self-recognition. Speaking from their home in San Miguel de Allende, they share the emotional and creative process behind transforming a penance chapel—once used to punish queerness—into a sp...

Through sensuality, survival, and sharp-witted grace, David Jester paints what too many won’t even say out loud. In this powerful episode, Jester reflects on art as confession, HIV survivorship, aging in a queer body, and the brutal cost of being visible. His canvases don’t perform—they speak, reminding us what it means to be seen and still stand tall. Recorded in conjunction with Pride NOT Permis...

In this episode, we reflect on The Bureau of Queer Art’s first-ever Open Studio event—a gathering of current residents, alumni, exhibiting artists, and new voices. Hosted by Micheal Swank, the conversation centers on what it means to share space, exchange stories, and build a creative future across geographies. Hear reflections on the evening, updates on upcoming opportunities like IMMORTAL: Queer...

Samuel Reyes, co-founder of Playa Escandón gallery in Mexico City, joins us to talk about building a gallery rooted in disruption, care, and context. With a background in luxury branding and art education, Reyes offers sharp insight into the real workings of the art market, the myth of the “next Basquiat,” and why collectors—and artists—must think long-term. From pricing strategies to emotional co...

In this powerful new episode of The Bureau of Queer Art Podcast , Jaimes Mayhew opens up about trans ecologies, the geologic weight of queer history, and how imagining new landscapes—real or speculative—is an act of resistance. From the rocks of their childhood in Utah to their collaborative utopian mapping projects, Mayhew’s work invites us to look closer and dream bigger . “I believe the first s...