Featured Artist

As a community celebration, Bearrison Street Fair is happy to collaborate each year with a local Featured Artist. We appreciate the amazing work these artists have created for us!

2024: D.J. Kirkland

D.J. Kirkland is a comic book artist and writer who's originally from Charlotte, NC. He went to college in Savannah and Atlanta, GA, and is now based in Vallejo, CA. His work can be best described as a hybrid of 90's anime and the Saturday morning cartoons we know and love from that era. He's the co-creator and artist of the graphic novel titled The Black Mage which debuted in 2019. Since then, he's worked on licensed properties such as Rick and Morty, Aggretsuko, Dream Daddy, Teen Titans Go!, and DC Pride 2024. You can also find his work included in a gay romance anthology titled Young Men In Love. His next comics project is a graphic novel he's writing and illustrating, tentatively titled The Fine Line, which is due out in 2026.

Kirkland’s work is being created into a pin that will be available at the Bearrison Street Fair on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, and then any remaining will be sold online for a donation to the Bearrison Street Fair.

Check out D.J. Kirkland online! https://ohheydj.carrd.co/

You can follow D.J. on social media @OhHeyDJ on Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky and X

2023: Jason Villegas

Jason Villegas is a visual artist originally from Houston, TX, who now works at SFMOMA and resides in the Mission, San Francisco. His practice utilizes many mediums, ultimately becoming a collage of painting, drawing, sculpture, comics, fabric, ceramics, performance, and installation. Villegas has exhibited across the United States and internationally in such renowned spaces as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Contemporary Art Museum of Houston, Museo Ruffino Tamayo, Phoenix Art Museum, El Museo del Barrio, and Exit Art. He has also participated in residencies at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and produced public artworks through the Emerging Artist Fellowship at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, NY, and the ArtLeague of Houston. He is also one of the first fellows at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Queer Art in NYC. Villegas explores concepts of identity, sexual orientation, and gender fluidity, often incorporating motifs that relate to the gay “bear” and “chub” subcultures. Villegas creates a teleological realm of mash-up characters engaged in colorful and humorous scenarios that mirror and question societal constructs.

Villegas’ work is being created into pins that will be available at the Bearrison Street Fair on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, and then any remaining will be sold online for a donation to the Bearrison Street Fair.

Check out Jason Villegas online! https://jason-villegas.com/

2022: Danyol León

Danyol is a high maintenance, self-deprecating homo into making art and music.

Danyol’s work was created into pins that will be available at the Bearrison Street Fair on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, and then any remaining will be sold online for a donation to the Bearrison Street Fair.

Check out Danyol León online! https://danyol.com/

2021: BEARPAD

BEARPAD's goal is to celebrate big queer bodies in many forms. Their favorite thing to do is make gigantic brightly colored wood cutouts to adorn queer spaces, but they also work in graphic design, video, music, performance, and more.

BEARPAD’s design was featured on our printed marketing and was also made available as a pin. A limited number are still available for a donation to the Bearrison Street Fair.

Check out BEARPAD online! http://www.bearpad.art/