Cheyne Gallarde's Legendary Queens and Superheroes

Cheyne Gallarde is a multi-faceted artist born and raised in Hawaii. Prior to creating illustrations, Cheyne was an award-winning fashion photographer. Cheyne’s illustration work reimagines drag queens as superheroes and villains. With their amazing transformations and over-the-top personas, drag queens are the modern-day superheroes that the world needs today. Cheyne’s work is nostalgic, celebrating the sentimental look and grit of vintage comics while putting a modern twist on it.

Recently, Cheyne won an Advertising Award for his MTV’s Video Music Awards illustrations and was a contributing artist in the Pow!Wow! Festival. His 38' Tall Mural located behind Ward Theatres is a dedication to the fabulous mahu of Hawaii. In 2020, his cover art for Tom & Lorenzo’s queer-centric “Legendary Children” was released to much praise. In 2019, he won a National Advertising Award for his illustrations of LGBTQ icons for Logo. When not drawing or painting, Cheyne loves to unwind with video games, binge-watching trashy reality TV, and lounging with his rescue dog Rocket.

Meet Cheyne Gallarde, the Artist Turning Drag Queens Into Pop Art Superheroes
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Trixie Mattel!

20 Queer Q's with Artist Cheyne Gallarde
Get to know more about the artist behind those popular, comic book inspired portraits of drag queens and other queer icons!