Catholic Gilt, I have discerned, takes the shame, sin, and traumas felt by religious or formerly religious queer artists and transforms them to be grand, referential, and thought-provoking. Oftentimes done through the reclamation and appropriation of religious imagery and renaissance compositions. Both well-known works and pieces from emerging, current artists are included here today to provide a holistic and comprehensive narrative of queer, “other” spirituality. The resulting collection of works defines a pseudo-renaissance of self-love and expression in an age where the Catholic churches continue to invalidate our existence.

Though Christianity in art has been a theme long explored by artists, art historians, and religious practitioners alike, the focus on religion in a contemporary context has long been a public debate. Whether it be the use of Catholic icons to create an anachronistic masterwork or the deliberate desecration of holy images to construct a new narrative, some works created post-1980 have used religious motifs to their advantage.   

Throughout contemporary art history, painters, photographers, and sculptors alike have consistently strived to push the envelope of what is acceptable to portray in their work. Specifically, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's artistic body of work created in the 1970s and 1980s broadly captures a subculture many folks did not wish to be exposed to: the queer underground S&M scene in New York City. In his photographing male nudity, sex acts, and graphic sadomasochism practices, Mapplethorpe not only documents a previously apocryphal group of individuals but also walks the fine line of obscenity in contemporary art.

Religion and sexuality are, historically, like oil and water. Throughout much of the history of art and history itself, notions of sex and queer identity are barred from being discussed in orthodox settings. However, this does not go to say that religion cannot inform queerness and art made by queer folks. That appears to be the case with many of the artists of the 1980s and 1990s. Specifically, Robert Gober and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, two of the prominent figureheads of the period, were raised Christian and would later live their lives as openly queer men. Through the investigation of these artists’ respective bodies of sculpture created in the 1980s and early 1990s, we can see how their religious upbringings as queer individuals would influence their later art.