ABOUT THE ARTIST: ZACH GREAR
Photo by M. Cooper, 2024.
Zach Grear (b. 1984, San Francisco, CA, USA) is a writer and self-taught artist based in Brooklyn. He attended San Francisco State University and graduated with a BA in Creative Writing. In 2010 he moved to New York City and in 2018 quit his full-time job to pursue his art practice. His work focuses on gay erotic imagery inspired by the gay porn he shoplifted as a teen. The hand drawn tattoo line work he draws is a way to directly inscribe his own beauty standard onto the featured bodies. These alterations join vibrant floral collage backgrounds to exalt gay sexuality into a deified realm. His art has been featured in New York Pride Guide magazine, the Oslo Erotic Film & Art Festival, The AIDS Memorial T-Shirt, and LaMama Galleria among others.
Utilizing this creative momentum, he is returning to writing. His short nonfiction has been shown in TRUANT zine and most recently the introduction to Male Burlesk-Times Square 1980-81: Photographs by Vivienne Maricevic. Zach is currently working on his first book.
zgrear8400@yahoo.com
ig: @zachgrear
PRESS/PUBLICATIONS/ONLINE FEATURES
Male Burlesk-Times Square NYC 1980-1981: Photographs by Vivienne Maricevic, written introduction, DRKRM Editions, May 2024.
Sensitive Content: Volume 3, August 2023.
Doable Guys: Volume 8, June 2023.
Dream Brother Vision One, November 2022.
Untitled Magazine: The Rebel Issue, September 2022.
TRUANT zine, short story, September 2022.
Doable Guys: Volume 7, June 2022.
SHOWER WITH AFFECTION volume 2: Group Shower, curated collection published by Raw Meat Collective, June 2022.
Sensitive Content: Volume 1 magazine, May 2022.
Physique Pictorial: Issue 60, May 2022.
Doable Guys: Volume 6, August 2021.
Warm Brothers zine, short story, Issue 4: Memory, August 2021
Doable Guys: Volume 5, September 2020.
SHOWER WITH AFFECTION, monograph published by Raw Meat Collective, August 2020.
Sassify Zine: Queeroes Issue #7, March 2020.
Imperial Physique by JH Phrydas, cover art, 2019.
Locked Up Boy by Jason Haaf, cover art, 2019.
Doable Guys: Volume 4, July 2019.
“Zach Grear’s Art Pushes the Queer Aesthetic”, killerandasweetthang.com, June 2019.
Warm Brothers zine, Issue 3: boys’ paradise, Dec. 2018.
SPUNK art & perspectives zine, Issue 12: Day for Night, Nov. 2018.
“Holiday Gift Guide”, Mic.com, Nov. 2018.
Recon zine, Issue 1, Nov. 2018.
“Bent on Rolemodelin’: Interview”, El Champ Magazine, July 2018.
“Arts in Activism”, NYC Pride Guidemagazine, June 2018.
“AIDS Memorial T-Shirt Benefits Housing Works”, aumag.org, March 2018.
Starrfucker Magazine, Issue 14: The Collab Issue, January 2018.
“The Most Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer gift guide ever all made by and for LGTBQ Folks”, Mic.com, Dec. 2017.
EXHIBITIONS
“You Left A Mark On Me”, group show. Co-curator. BGSQD, New York, NY. September 2024-January 2025.
“End Of The Rainbow”, group show. Golden Ratio Gallery, Prague. August 2024.
“Gay As It Gets”, group show. Nails Salon Gallery, Brooklyn, NY June 2024.
“Bliss: A Queer Exhibition”, group show. Co-curator. C’mon Everybody, Brooklyn, NY 2023/2024.
"Queer Love: Romance and Affection in Contemporary Art”, group show. Joint show at Lehman College Art Gallery and LaMama Galleria, New York, NY. February-April 2023.
“The REBEL Exhibit”, group show. Untitled Space Gallery, New York, NY. September 2022.
“Wish You Were Here”, group show. Mortal Machine Gallery, New Orleans, LA. September 2022.
“RAW MIZER”, group show. The Bob Mizer Foundation, San Francisco, CA. May 2022.
“Trans Joy, Black Joy, Brown Joy”, group show. The Little Gay Shop, Austin, TX. June 2021.
“Doable Guys presents: Through the Glory Hole”, group show. 208 Bowery, New York, May 2021.
“A Howl Is Also A Prayer”, group show. Anne Wright Wilson Fine Arts Gallery, Kentucky, Jan-March 2021.
"LUST 1984 / 2.0”, online exhibition. tomoffinlandstore.com, September 2020-November 2020
“LUST 1984”, online exhibition. tomoffinlandstore.com, June 2020-September 2020.
“PARADISE LUST”, solo show. A Love Bizarre Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, January 2020.
“PURO COLOR!”, group show. La Bodega Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, November 2019.
“Photoworks SF Presents PRIDE”, group show. Photoworks SF, San Francisco, CA, June 2019
“Zach Grear Expose’”, solo show. bar Msieurs Dames, Paris, France, June-July 2019.
“Rendering Likeness—Volume 2”, group show. Established Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, June 2019.
“A Love Bizarre” Grand Opening exhibition, group show. A Love Bizarre Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, February 2019.
“SUPERPROUD” Exhibition, Amsterdam Pride, group show. Wieden+Kennedy, 258-266 Herengracht, 1016 BV Amsterdam, Netherlands, August 2018.
Human Rights Conference, group show. SUNY Global Center, New York, NY, June 2018.
“Blue Devils” solo exhibition. Blind Barber, Brooklyn, NY, November 2015.