lbgtq rights – ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon

The Artwork of Gonzalo Orquin

Born in 1982 at Aracena, a town in the Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche National Park, Gonzalo Orquín is a Spanish multi-media artist, painter and photographer. His oeuvre includes works on paper, oils on canvas, street art, and installations.

At an early age, Orquin relocated with his family to Seville, the provincial capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia. He studied Fine Arts at Spain’s University of Seville between 2000 and 2004. Orquin continued his studies at Italy’s University of Perugia in 2005. He later undertook a residency at the Fondazione Sant’Elia, the cultural center for the promotion of the artistic and cultural heritage of the Province of Palermo, where his work was inspired by the light and traditions of the surrounding area.

Gonzalo Orquin’s work is influenced by the traditional Spanish realism of both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. through which he transforms the intimacy of everyday occurrences into measured dramatic events. His paintings consist of portraits and populated scenes, both interior and exterior, that are often created with a muted palette. Committed to the rights of the LBGTQ world, Orquin’w work, which displays a thoughtful depth of emotion, focuses on both gay and straight subjects with an eye to both the past and the present.

In 1999 at the age of sixteen, Orquin had his first exhibition in Seville. His first solo exhibition was held in Rome in 2006. In that year, Orquin received the Oltre i Libri Award from the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. He has participated in group shows at Rome’s Royal Spanish Academy and St. Petersburg’s Museum of 20th and 21st Century Art. Orquin has presented his work in solo exhibitions at Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MACRO), and the Leslie=Lohman Museum of Art in New York City.

As a photographer, Gonzalo Orquin is best known for his 2013 series “Si Quiero”, a collection of sixteen photographs of same-sex couples kissing in churches mainly located in Rome. Originally presented as part of “Trialogo”, a solo exhibition of his work in various mediums, these images were considered offensive by the diocese of Rome which threatened legal action. For the duration of the exhibition, these images were covered with black cardboard. Later exhibitions of the entire series were held at the Gallery MooiMan in Groningen, the Netherlands, and New York’s Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in April/May of 2015.

In 2023, Orquin presented his exhibition “Being Human-The Sea At Night Is Too Big” at Brussels’s MigratieMuseumMigration (MMM). This show focused on the stories and experiences of migrant and refugees arriving in Europe, either by sea to Italy or by land to Bosnia. The project was a collaboration with Italian photojournalist Francesco Malavolta which included a documentary film by French director Alex Forge who narrates Orquin’s work process and meetings with the migrants and refugees.

Gonzalo Orquin currently lives and works between Italy and Spain. A twenty-year retrospective exhibition of his work was held in Palermo, Italy in September of 2025. Orquin’s website is located at: https://www.gonzaloorquin.com

Top Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Gonzalo Orquin”, 2021, Color Video Shot

Second Insert Image: Gonzalo Orquin, Untitled Still Life (Art Supplies), Oil on Canvas

Third Insert Image: Gonzalo Orquin, “Julian and Leo”, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 90 x70 cm

Bottom Insert Image: Gonzalo Orquin, “Un Muchacho Ruso”, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 45 x 45 cm

Born in 1995, Gao Zhouyue is a Chinese artist who is often places his painting’s models against religious backgrounds, a trait he developed from his study of European murals. He is a graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, considered to be China’s foremost art academy. Gao’s paintings are often mixed-media with glass, seashells, and gold foil used as accents in the work.

Homosexuality is legal in China and authorities removed it from an official list of mental disorders in 2001. However, LBGTQ people still face prejudices and discrimination from both the public and the government. There are no anti-discrimination protections established in China’s laws for LBGTQ people Although Taiwan made same-sex marriages legal in 2019, Beijing, which considers Taiwan a separatist province, is unlikely to follow suit on the mainland in the foreseeable future.

Among the many studies on homosexuality and homoeroticism in China’s history, a 1992 study entitled “Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China”, written by Bret Hinsch and published by the Cambridge University Press, was one that showed that homosexuality was regarded as a normal facet of life in China, prior to the emergence of Western influence from 1840 onwards. Opposition to homosexuality, according to the same study, did not become firmly established in China until the Westernization efforts of the late Qing Dynasty and its successor, the Chinese Republic, which was established in 1912.

The Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty of Imperial China, was established in 1636 and ruled the empire beginning in 1644. Beginning in 1655, the Qing courts began to use the term ji jian, meaning sodomy, to apply to homosexual intercourse. Strict obedience to the social order, which referred to relationships between husband and wife, was emphasized. In 1740, an anti-homosexual decree, which made voluntarily homosexual intercourse between adults illegal, was spread throughout the empire. Although the effectiveness of this proclamation is unknown, it was the first time homosexuality was subject to legal prosecution in China; the punishment, actually the lightest in the Qing legal system, was a month in prison and one hundred heavy blows with a bamboo rod.

In 1912, the Qing Dynasty was toppled after a decade of agitation, revolts and uprisings. The explicit prohibition of ji jian was abolished by the succeeding provinces. However, through the Westernization efforts of the now established Republic of China, intolerance of those gay or lesbian and the idea of heteronormativity became more mainstream. During Mao Zedong’s control of China, homosexuality became in essence invisible in the country and, with the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, homosexuals became heavily persecuted.

In 1997, all references to homosexuality in China’s criminal law were removed, The Chinese Society of Psychiatry, the largest organization of Chinese psychiatrists, declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 2001; however, it still claims that a person could be conflicted or suffering from mental problems due to their sexuality. China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission, the government branch that controls all regulations of health care services, has yet to change its regulations in psychiatric facilities and textbooks; so these facilities and textbooks still consider homosexuality a mental disorder, and facilities still offer conversion therapy treatments. Transgender identity is still classified as a disorder despite laws allowing legal gender changes.