Victoria Unikel created series of mixed media art for charity, used real blood from gay friend and portraits of transgender people tragically killed for their gender.
LGBTQ Pride Month in June includes parades, festivals, workshops, picnics, and parties. It recognizes LGBTQ achievements and civil rights struggles. Although festivities continue, transgender persons are being attacked and murdered at an alarming rate.
Artist Victoria Unikel with 657k followers on her IG @victoriaunikel is known for her scandalous WAR art series where she used real blood of people from warring nations. She has now created another series called Gender.
Longtime LGBT activist Unikel protests transphobia and promotes tolerance through her work. The blood-colored fluorescent acrylic paintings took over a month to create and years to conceptualize. Each picture has several portraits of transgender Americans killed in recent years within the paint and large text of homonym words of significance to gender definition.
Her gay and orthodox friends donated their blood for the Gender collection using a diabetic’s lancet tool and glass vial. The Unikel philosophy is to bring together different classes of people by physically mixing their blood to humanize them and stop the violence, creating peace.
Unikel said: “We need to stop this madness! Every person has a right to be as they want to be, and it’s wrong to hate each other just for their choices of how to become closer to their nature and gender.”
Mixed media painting ‘SHe’ from the Gender series by Unikel
Transphobia, the irrational fear or hatred of transgender individuals, manifests in various forms, from discriminatory policies to violent acts, and is the target of Unikel the artist and activist. Her spotlight on the problem is a giant step toward eradicating it.
There is a pattern between the works, but a real distinction in style and message. “SHe”, for example, features an explosive mix of colors and text, creating a visually striking and powerful message. Dominated by shades of red, yellow, and purple, it displays bold letters, in ‘Pride’ colors, spelling out “SHE” in large, prominent fonts, that in turn contains “HE”. A chaotic, brush-stroked patterns signal movement and urgency. Drops of paint, symbolizing blood, further enhance the intensity of the message.
Mixed media painting ‘They’ from the Gender series by Unikel
Victoria’s similarly powerful War paintings include images of victims from both sides and mixed blood from Israeli, Palestinian, Ukrainian, Russian, and Syrian individuals. The Gender series also uses portraits of victims to underscore the human toll of the violence. All paintings from this art series will benefit war crime victims’ charity.
The Gender collection aims to raise awareness of the problem of violence, to foster inclusivity, empower representation and dialogue on the issue, and to support projects that are working to solve it.
This time she crafted Gender paintings as part of her scandalous art and announced her new art-based non-profit, VUGA Foundation.
Unikel with her painting ‘SHe’ – which is 48 inches tall
The contemporary artist blended Pride colors and inscriptions with a few drops of blood in multi-layered fluorescent acrylics on canvas, then archival-protected it for at least 100 years.
Victoria spent hours investigating trans victim killings in the media and incorporated their portraits in her paintings with a softer Basquiat-like color pallet.
Portraits of transgender victims with the phrase ‘Love’ flowing colorfully across multilayered acrylic are displayed on 36 x 48 inch canvas. Red paint with blood covers victims’ portraits that are placed on the letters of the words ‘WoMan’, ‘SHe’, ‘They’, ‘Love’, ‘Unity’.
Mixed media painting ‘WoMan’ from the Gender series by Unikel
Unikel said: “I’m so happy that I can create my paintings to influence and change the world for the better, reducing the hatred and violence. I have never been so nervous and excited at the same time!”
The gender paintings are being prepared for gallery and event exhibition and will be donated to Make-A-Wish and other charities to be auctioned at their fund-raisers to do more good in the world.
Producer, writer, and media mogul Victoria Unikel has also received the Top Art Award by MOSAIC Federation for her work to end human trafficking and slavery and her paintings and mixed media pieces have repeatedly sold at auction.
