Queer Art That Refuses to Be Quiet: Discovering Chris Von Steiner

Mark Dunn
2026-04-17T01:23:28-07:00

There are artists who make beautiful things, and then there are artists who make you feel
something you weren't prepared to feel. Chris Von Steiner is firmly, defiantly, in the second category.

Born in France in 1965 and now based in Brussels, Belgium, Von Steiner, whose real name is Christophe Austruy, has spent decades building one of the most distinctive bodies of work in contemporary queer art. And if you haven't encountered his art before, prepare yourself: it doesn't tiptoe. It arrives in full color, full force, and full queerness.
We are proud to feature Chris Von Steiner in Inspiró Magazine Issue 7, and we want you to understand exactly why this artist matters.

From Parisian Ad Agencies to the World's Galleries

Before Von Steiner became a celebrated figure in queer art circles from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, he was cutting his teeth as an art director and graphic designer in the competitive world of Paris advertising. His client list was impressive, Citroën, Vogue Homme, Universal Music, Arte, Renault, the kind of work that sharpens a creative eye into something razor sharp.

But the commercial world couldn't contain him for long.

Something shifted. The polished, purposeful world of brand communication gave way to
something more honest, more urgent, more him. Von Steiner stepped away from advertising and began making art that answered only to his own imagination, one that, as he has shown repeatedly, is both exhilarating and unsettling in the best possible way.

He is self-taught, which perhaps explains the fearlessness. There was no institution to tell him what queer art should look like, no professor to grade his transgressions. There was only his eye, his instinct, and an uncompromising drive to show the world as he experiences it.

A Kaleidoscope of Identity

Von Steiner's visual language is immediately recognizable: bold, saturated colors; intricate patterns; figures that shimmer between innocence and provocation. His digital paintings and mixed-media works pull from childhood iconography, pop culture, personal fantasy, and queer desire, fusing them into something that is simultaneously familiar and deeply strange.

His work has been described as creating "a kaleidoscopic world which is sexy and disturbing, familiar and strange at the same time", and that tension is precisely the point. He is not interested in comfort. He is interested in truth.

That truth is rooted in his identity as a gay man navigating a multicultural existence between France and Belgium, between the mainstream art world and its queer margins, between playfulness and political urgency. His paintings don't just depict LGBTQ+ life, they argue for it. They insist on its beauty, its complexity, its right to be seen.

An Exhibition Career That Spans Continents

Von Steiner's work has earned its place on walls across the world. Solo exhibitions have taken him to Oslo (I Wanna Be Adored, Blood Sweat & Tears), Berlin (Bright Lights Dark Shadows, Lost Boys of Dreamland Forest), London (Snow King), Liège (Endangered Species), Lille (Via Crucis), and Rio de Janeiro (Obscuro Objeto: Desejo at Oi Futuro, his first solo show in Brazil, presenting 40 works spanning over a decade).

Group exhibitions have placed him alongside queer artists across Europe, including Hide & Seek: A Queer Exhibition in Brussels and the Skeive Kunstnere (Queer Artists) shows in Oslo, a recurring platform he has participated in multiple years running.

This is not an artist operating on the fringes hoping to be discovered. This is an artist who has been showing up, decade after decade, in cities and galleries that matter.

The Writer Behind the Canvas

What many people don't know about Von Steiner is that his artistic voice extends well beyond the visual. He is also a published novelist, and not a hobbyist one.
He has published two novels in France: Un panda dans l'escalier and Je veux te voir nu (both with H&O Editions, a publisher known for LGBTQ+ literature). He also contributed to Userlands, a short fiction anthology published by Akashic Books in the United States, assembled by acclaimed American author Dennis Cooper for his "Little House on the Bowery" series.

The literary world and the visual art world are not separate territories for Von Steiner, they are two channels for the same restless, questioning creative intelligence.

Advocacy Woven Into Art

Chris Von Steiner's commitment to LGBTQ+ visibility is not a footnote, it is embedded in every creative decision he makes.

He has created work for the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, with proceeds supporting organizations fighting discrimination in France. His art has appeared in the French queer art fanzine Homothetie. He actively collaborates with other queer artists and curators to amplify voices that the mainstream art world too often sidelines.

For Von Steiner, making queer art is an act of advocacy. Every exhibition is a declaration. Every bold color, every confrontational image, every unexpected composition says the same thing: we are here, we are complex, and we are not going to make ourselves small for your comfort.

Why He Belongs in Inspiró Issue 7

Inspiró Magazine has always championed artists who don't ask permission. Chris Von Steiner is exactly that kind of artist.

His work reminds us that art's highest purpose is not to decorate walls, but to expand what we're willing to see, in others, and in ourselves. In an era when LGBTQ+ rights are still contested, when queer visibility is still political, Von Steiner's art is not just beautiful. It is necessary.

Issue 7 is in your hands now. Turn to his pages and let his work do what it has always done: disturb you a little, delight you a lot, and leave you thinking long after you've set the magazine down.

Discover more of Chris Von Steiner's work at chrisvonsteiner.com

Pick up your copy of Inspiró Magazine Issue 7 today.