About the Artist
Bryan Clavel is a commercial portrait and fine art photographer based out of Brooklyn, New York. Most recently, Bryan's work explores the concept of identity and the myriad of skins queerness encompasses. In their photographic series, "Divine Punishment," Clavel highlights the erasure of queer identity in the '80s by photographing drag performers in a contemporary approach to the glamour shot aesthetic of the time. Further, in their Art Talk in the spring of 2020 at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Clavel openly discussed how the portraits became "statements of identity and documents of people worthy of being remembered."
Clavel graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. A multiple scholarship winner, Bryan is a profoundly ambitious, committed photographer, writer, and scholar leading conversations about the importance of transforming trauma into art. Additionally, Clavel is committed to facilitating difficult conversations surrounding identity, culture, and power. For Bryan, their creative practice is a way of life, and to date has been a way of positively impacting both the Las Vegas community and a nationally growing audience. Through their research and their art practice, Bryan endeavors to build solidarity and tolerance. They are a visionary grounded in humanism. Their passion for understanding depictions of the Self, the body, and subversive gender aesthetics, is firmly grounded in their own lived experience. All in all, Bryan is an independent, divergent thinker, with an ability to realize complex, conceptually driven projects. They do not let artificial boundaries (in academia, in the arts, or the world) limit them, their creative practice, or their problem-solving.
Clavel graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. A multiple scholarship winner, Bryan is a profoundly ambitious, committed photographer, writer, and scholar leading conversations about the importance of transforming trauma into art. Additionally, Clavel is committed to facilitating difficult conversations surrounding identity, culture, and power. For Bryan, their creative practice is a way of life, and to date has been a way of positively impacting both the Las Vegas community and a nationally growing audience. Through their research and their art practice, Bryan endeavors to build solidarity and tolerance. They are a visionary grounded in humanism. Their passion for understanding depictions of the Self, the body, and subversive gender aesthetics, is firmly grounded in their own lived experience. All in all, Bryan is an independent, divergent thinker, with an ability to realize complex, conceptually driven projects. They do not let artificial boundaries (in academia, in the arts, or the world) limit them, their creative practice, or their problem-solving.