In the third volume of the Dark Vintage Collection, queer Canadian artist Astra Zero continues an ongoing exploration of historical imagery through a contemporary queer lens. This latest installment revisits classical and vintage visual traditions, reinterpreting them with an uncompromising focus on the male form, gothic sensuality, and restrained decadence.
Blending reimagined historical works with original compositions, Vol.3 navigates the space between reverence and disruption. Familiar iconography is subtly transformed, soft femininity replaced with male femininity, romanticism edged with shadow, and beauty intertwined with themes of desire, mortality, and the uncanny.
Rather than simple homage, this volume positions itself as a dialogue with art history, challenging long-standing conventions around gender, sexuality, and the gaze. The result is a collection that is at once erotic, darkly atmospheric, and meticulously composed.
Designed in a large-format layout, the book presents full-page artworks on the right, paired with concise contextual notes on the left. This structure allows the images to stand independently, making the volume suitable both as a cohesive art book and as a source of individual works for display.
Vol.3 deepens the Dark Vintage Collection’s ongoing examination of desire, power, and the male body—inviting the viewer to reconsider the past through a distinctly queer, modern perspective.
Across centuries, queer expression has been erased, destroyed by war or suppressed by religious authority. Astra Zero approaches this absence as both inspiration and provocation, offering a modern reimagining of the art that could have existed, or once did, but was never allowed to survive.
Size: 11.7×11.7”
Paperback ISBN – 9781998329090
Hardcover ISBN – 9781998329106
Page Count – 88
Comments