We recently connected with Rielly Marquez and have shared our conversation below.
Rielly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
My most recent artistic focus is a combination of my studies while in undergrad. I unexpectedly became immersed in gender and sexuality studies half way into my college career. By the time I reached graduation I developed my personal artistic practice that highlights queerness and more specifically – the homoerotic. When I started developing my themes in undergrad, I was always told to manage my subjects to avoid losing artistry to pornography. This always intrigued me. The established perception around sexuality, intimacy, connection and lust has a line that can be crossed but my question is – why is the content that crosses this line no longer artistic? This project is meaningful to me because, through multiple mediums, I am creating a pushback to this idea. Outside of puritan and heteronormative ideals, sexuality is all around us and should be accepted as a normal human function whether it stems from love or desire. My agenda is not to make all spaces sex focused but, to have an openness to display and appreciate eroticism of all forms in the art world. Making this art has provided me with a beautiful perspective on my practice and has allowed me to find a community that creates similar work that inspires me to expand my mind, art and hopefully establish an arts space that has more openness to the work it displays and promotes.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Rielly Marquez. I am an interdisciplinary artist from Denver, Colorado. I graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2022 with Bachelor of Fine Arts and minor in Sexuality Studies. Since childhood I have always been attracted to creating art and never lost that passion. Throughout my schooling from elementary to undergrad – I have been fortunate enough to be under the wing of amazing teachers that have helped me expand my craft, interests and skills. My main medium of choice is acrylic painting but I work with watercolors, graphite, charcoal, photography, sculpture and video art. My personal work has a strong focus on portraiture, and more recently, revolving around the queer identity. From drag queens to erotica – I have made sharing and preserving queerness through art my personal obligation. I am proud to add my perspective to the pool of LGBTQ+ art and I hope my art allows viewers to feel comfortable and in control with their identity and their sexuality.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the relationships that are build from the work one produces. In the most random places and times art can bring people together and create bonds that inspire and fulfill me. Having more of a niche and community focused subject matter always brings positive interactions with people who have viewed my art. It is rewarding to represent and provide visibility for my community that faces censorship and danger on a daily basis. Further, art is an outlet that allows me to share myself, my joy, my frustration and my passion and having a physical manifestation of that brings me a lot of peace. I am unapologetically brown, queer and sex positive and expressing that through my art is one of the best thing I have experienced in my life.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Something I’ve had to unlearn as a creative and as a person in general is that I should be doing all things by myself and not request help when needed. I have gone through a lot of experiences in my life where I had become to think I was being a nuisance when needing help. Though I navigated rather independently as an artist – my time in undergrad, arts internships and familial relationships have given me a new perspective and realized that somehow, somewhere, there are people who want to see you succeed and will be there to lend a hand when needed. Additionally, if there are not immediate close relationships in ones life, there are always resources for artist to find opportunities, grants, communities, etc. that can be a huge aid to ones artistic and personal journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.riellymarquez.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riellybynature/