WHAT IS A QUEEN TO YOU?

In partnership with the Makeup Museum, the Gallatin Queen Symposium asks public audiences, including artists, students, and residents, “What is a Queen To You?” Explore the gallery to learn more about the power of queenship in uplifting communities, celebrating diverse forms of beauty, and learning collectively about different ways of knowing. 

Shimshim She

Location: Manhattan, New York

Age: 21

Social: @shimshimshe

“A queen to me is an outward expression of internal feelings of gender, identity, and emotions. She not only shows her beauty but she also shows her demons. A queen is a creature that I find myself trapped within but also freed by.”

 

Joan Merlini

Location: New York

Age: 24

Social: @joan_merlini

“When I thought of queen I thought of like literal queens as well as the slang term queen. This character I painted is a queen in the slang sense. She is a very strong powerful character with a leadership role, student council president, but is also a regular teenage girl at the same time.”

 

Evelyn Ziropoulos

Location: Palisades Park

Age: 22

Social: @evelon_the_watermelon

“A true queen is someone who holds herself to high regards. She understands that to do the best for others she must know what is best for her. She dedicates time in meditation to explore her mind and learn the true value in what is not only physical but also mental and emotional. She doubts herself only because she strives for more wisdom and enlightenment to bring to her life and share with others.

The medium is watercolor and colored pencil. It’s relatively big … roughly 18”x12” I wanted to utilize the dripping of the watercolor to convey the feeling of finally hitting the feeling of understanding or realization through the meditative process. I flipped the canvas both ways to get the water to drip in opposite directions to show how sometimes the needs of yourself can contrast what is needed outside of you. Giving her red hair felt strong and powerful when put against the blue and I felt that was very fitting.”

 

Rocket Ahuna and Angel Au

Location: New York

Age: 20

Social: @madebyfebruary, @itsangelau

“My friend and I created this look for the Queen exhibit! It’s a recreation of Lady Gaga’s met gala look from 2019 and to us both, it screamed Queen of the carpet. The model (myself) is Angel Au and the designer is Rocket Ahuna.”

 

Lori Lu

Location: New York

Age: 25

Social: @lorystoryy

Inspiration: “Portray the fun and fluidity-androgynous part of drag as well as showing my Mexican heritage.”

“For me this represents how a drag queen should feel and evoke while on full drag. Feeling royal, beautiful, stunning. Putting full on drag makeup and portraying my drag persona makes me feel confident, fun and beautiful like a true royal. Sometimes it makes me feel unreachable like once the monarchy was, as well as being a (drag) queen is not as easy as it seems.”