Gem chats to Quil Lemons, a New York-based artist who has really crafted a distinct visual language which interrogates ideas around masculinity, queerness, race and beauty. His first body of work ‘GlitterBoy’, a tender portrait series of Black men and boys adorned in glitter, examined the shifting notions of gender and beauty as they relate to masculinity in the black community. The project laid the foundation for his bold and daring work that straddles art and fashion.

“I got into photography to preserve my existence, to document my family and what it means to be a black American. I think we are going through a really special moment in America when it comes to image-making when you get to see so many black photographers and creators get to rectify the lack of documentation and cement our existence in American history. It's wild to see history be written in real-time. I think about The New Black Vanguard and how my grandmother is pictured in the same book as Beyonce, celebrating a new form of black beauty.”

In this conversation we talk about everything from family, community, personal style, art making, speaking out, shooting in a pandemic and how he blurs the lines between art and fashion. 

Follow Quil on Instagram @quillemons on Instagram and visit https://quillemons.com to see her work. Follow Gem @gemfletcher on Instagram. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to The Messy Truth, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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