In his 1991 work Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA), the artist poured an enormous pile of brightly colored candies into a corner and invited viewers to take pieces of the candy. Katz has further interpreted the use of iconography in Robert Rauschenberg's combine paintings, such as a picture of Judy Garland in Bantam (1954) and references to the Ganymede myth in Canyon (1959), as allusions to the artist's identity as a gay man.

Later, she wanted to present ordinary pictures of queer life as a retort to the notion that the gay lifestyle was somehow deviant, and in doing so she produced insightful and intimate portraiture that has been wholly absent from mainstream media. We see such questions at play in Opie's work, as she presents differing, subverted and updated images of gender, maternity, partnership, and domesticity. It is taken from a personal photo but blown up, newspaper-style, removing elements of intimacy and placing it within a political, public context. Queer practices have a noted relationship to public space, from the wheatpasted activist posters of the 1980s and 1990s, to murals, public sculpture, memorials, and graffiti.She often centres them in scenes inspired by medieval and early modern renderings of biblical stories. This work in particular hosts a homosocial event of music and its connections to love, as signified by the cupid on the left side of the painting. The central figure being Arnold Pyle, the artists assistant and a possible love interest as Grant surrounded himself with other men who looked similar. Ma would be arrested for such performances, and in 1995, police forced the artists to move out of Beijing's East Village, with Ma beginning to work outside China.

Though their subjects and methods are diverse, all of these artists are connected through their depictions and evocations of queer mystery: the idea that queerness exists beyond societal assumptions in an ambiguous space full of fluidity and indeterminancy. The Silence=Death Project, a six-person collective, drew from influences such as feminist art activism group, Guerrilla Girls, to produce the iconic Silence = Death poster, which was wheatpasted across the city and used by ACT-UP as a central image in their activist campaign. This miniature illustration depicts Shah Abbas I of Persia and his page boy interacting and sharing wine.Shifting constructions of desire and deviance have shaped modern art in ways that extend beyond sexual biography or individual preference. Howe says, "Bacon was probably aware that he was building upon aesthetic tropes of classical wrestling used since the nineteenth century as cover emblems of homosexuality. One advert, claiming, "We can improve your nightlife," had the witty missive spray-painted beneath: "Join Lesbians United.

In Gaydar (2014), Ferris offers no visual clues as to her sexuality, but the title acts as a rejoinder to society's fascination with her identity. Significance to Queer Art History: Car avaggio’s work, characterized by his dramatic chiaroscuro technique (chiaroscuro uses dramatic lights and darks to model the figures coming out of the shadows in a “theatrical spotlight” manner) were sensual and dreamlike. Since the late 19 th century, cultural and legal responses to homosexuality have evolved, but it was only in the second half of the 20 th century that many of the laws criminalizing homosexual acts were overturned. Alvin Baltrop is a photographer whose book The Piers centers on the deteriorating Christopher Street Piers, which was a popular destination for gay men to cruise, sunbathe, and have public sex. Judith Butler, leading feminist theorist, wrote, "A feminist view argues that gender should be overthrown, eliminated or rendered fatally ambitious precisely because it is always a sign of subordination for women.Displayed in the past at the New Orleans Old Mint Museum as part of the exhibition, titled: Soul of the South: Selections from the Gitter-Yellen Collection. More than ever, there is a bounty of LGBTIA+ artists capturing the complexity of queerness, sexuality, and gender. The performance featured the artist assuming the persona of a transgender woman named Fen-Ma Liuming, who would prepare and serve steamed fish for the audience while completely nude, eventually sitting down and attaching a large laundry tube to her penis, sucking and breathing on the other end of the tube. His autobiographical paintings provided a space where he could exorcise his demons; his life was shrouded in sadness, and in 1971, his lover of eight years, George Dyer, committed suicide in their shared hotel room.