This week’s community post features the work of Zach Grear, an artist who is making his mark in the queer art world. With his rebellious spirit, Zach’s one-of-a-kind style uses markers and collage to transform found imagery, including vintage gay porn magazines, icons from his own life, and peers in the contemporary Queer art scene. By deconstructing and distorting these images, Zach challenges societal norms and perceptions, creating thought-provoking pieces adorned with recurring words and symbols that further disrupt their original meanings.
In this artist highlight, we’ll explore Zach’s role in the Inked issue of Natural Pursuits Magazine, share some of his work, and present an exclusive interview with the artist.
INSIDE INKED
In our ongoing Inside Inked series, we’re highlighting the artists who contributed to the magazine. While recruiting for the event, plenty of questions were fielded from people who wanted to attend, but didn’t have any tattoos. Our response was always the same: everyone was welcome, as we had made arrangements with Zach Grear to ensure that an abundance of tattoos would be added through his artwork.
Reading Grear’s interview responses below, you’ll understand why his participation was essential for the magazine. Zach’s unique perspective on body modifications, particularly tattoos, and his exploration of personal identity perfectly aligns with the core theme of the magazine. His work encapsulates the transformative power of tattoos and challenges conventional notions of self-expression.
ARTIST INTERVIEW
Natural Pursuits (NP): Your artist bio mentions a big inspiration for your work was the vintage gay porn mags you used to shoplift as a teen. Very happy you embodied “Be Gay, Do Crime” from an early age. Can you talk more about what draws you to that aesthetic?
Zach Grear (ZG): At its core, I think that aesthetic is a faded tether back to teenage me. That kid who, without internet, was desperate for these images of men and doing the only thing I could think of to get them. The more I work with these images, the more fun I find them. There’s so much ingenuity (especially Jim French’s COLT photography), often so little budget, and it’s driven purely to give men a fantasy. All this at a time when Porn, gay porn specifically, wasn’t as Big Business as it is now. I find it quite the noble pursuit.
NP: Please don’t plant the seed that we should start a porn mag called “Noble Pursuits”.
But, as a nudist publication, we ask people to strip away the identity signaled by their clothing. Something something “We’re born naked, the rest is drag.” In contrast, your work shows the transformative power of more permanent body modification.
Can you share your thoughts on the relationship between body modifications, such as tattoos, and the exploration of personal identity?
ZG: Tattoos are my most personal beauty standard. In short, the more tattoos I get the more hot I feel. And it’s been such a necessary way to reconnect with my body. The way my body is shaped or how it moves was never something I paid attention to.
At worst it was something I begrudgingly accepted, mad that it didn’t look like {insert current idealized body type}. Now, as I lean into being heavily tattooed, I look closer at my body, I recognize it, and ultimately feel grateful to it.
NP: You frequently remove the eyes from your source images. Can talk about this decision?
ZG: I’ve gotten this question a few times and I don’t have a solid answer. It’s an artistic choice I made once. And when I did, I knew it was the correct one, so I kept doing it.
NP: Your Boy Division Gear frequently uses the phrase “Queer is Punk.” Can your talk more about that idea?
ZG: Initially I just really loved the aesthetic of Punk music, namely the 70’s London scene. I still do; however, in the past few years I’ve become more enticed by Punk as an ideology. Something not bound to specific imagery but instead based on anti-establishment. The “otherness” of being Queer is what I find empowering, and I believe it’s precisely this that connects it to Punk.
NP: What do you have going on and where can people pick up some of your gear or prints?
ZG: I’m currently working on a book! I studied Creative Writing in college so it’s been such a good feeling reconnecting with that side of my creativity.
My website zachgrear.com has prints and apparel, and of course follow my very shadowbanned Instagram @zachgrear for my art and maybe my Close Friends list!
NP: Shadowbanned accounts unite! And, yes, everyone should go by things from your website right now.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Zach Grear is a self-taught artist inspired by Queer erotica and tattoo iconography. He uses markers and collage to alter found imagery, specializing in vintage gay porn magazines he used to shoplift as a teen. Each piece transforms the original image into a new “othered” version of itself. Recurring words and symbols add to this distortion, challenging the original intent of the image. His artwork also includes portraits of his personal heroes along with peers in the contemporary Queer art scene. Zach currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
zgrear8400@yahoo.com
ig: @zachgrear
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