In the history of the spiritual, man is second to those who transcend human formation. Whether deemed malevolent or virtuous, it is the transformation into formlessness that certifies sanctity.
In my prayer, the queer bodies are the ones who are divine. The queer body is a deliberate sacrifice, disrupting the established order and revealing the potential for the heavenly. Through a new process of monotype printmaking, I use the soft, fleshy mediums of graphite powder, porous fabrics, and delicate papers to redefine the act of art making into the creation of body itself. The act of tenderly pressing an image with the divinity of a creator to reveal its identical copy onto a new membrane becomes nothing short of a religious expansion of the transgender experience. My creation, now exhibiting tactile power, can now be used in conjunction with imagery of the violent gendered propaganda of today’s modern society. It becomes a battle for survival. What I call into question is the opportunity for this euphoric invention of body, of defying the established order to its fullest extent, for what does it mean to inhabit a body that is deemed evil, and how is that our power? I call upon the monstrous to experience the sacred in the modern world, an invention of not only body, but the invention of an entire world. For when one does not comprehend their own body they inhabit, it grants them an opportunity to reinvent a world in which they belong and are cherished. By rupturing form, me and my creatures thrive in a harmony of ecstasy and horror.
Born Toledo, Ohio
Currently Chicago, Illinois
Dyllan Quan Champion (b.2002) is a printmaker and painter who makes his transgender experience the conceptual source for his creative body of invented creatures. Born to a Guyanese immigrant in Ohio, Dyllan’s work focuses on not only the transgender experience, but also the concept of Americana and gender propaganda, and where one places their body in these complicated histories. During his undergraduate education, he spent his summers at the Oxbow School of Art and Artists’ Residencies, where he received the 2023-24 Oxbow Ambassadorship. His work currently lives in the collections at the Queer Materials Lab at Temple University and the Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection at SAIC. He has shown work in Chicago, New York, Michigan, and Ohio.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2025.
He is currently working and living in Chicago.
Email for full CV
dqc.535@gmail.com