We are a work in progress • Things should be all fixed up by Friday 10/9!

THE PROJECT

Pink Triangle Portraits is an ongoing portrait project by artist and art teacher Bry Sharland, focused on remembering queer people persecuted by the Nazi regime and under Paragraph 175.

The project began with Bry’s interest in the Nazi persecution of queer people, a subject he first encountered in high school. By college, he had begun creating artwork that highlighted lesser-known groups targeted by the Nazi regime.

One fact in particular continued to drive his interest in the subject: the persecution of queer people did not simply end with the fall of the Third Reich. Nazi-era laws and attitudes continued to affect queer people long after the war ended, and most victims did not receive recognition or justice.

Pink Triangle Portraits grew from that history into a larger goal: to create a portrait of every photographed queer person who experienced the Nazi regime.

The portraits are based on surviving historical photographs and are accompanied by researched information about the individual depicted. By focusing on individual people rather than statistics alone, the project seeks to encourage viewers to stop, look, and contemplate the lives of those who came before them.

The work is ultimately about remembrance, queer joy, and dignity. Through these portraits, Bry hopes viewers will understand the people behind this history and recognize how tenuous hard-won rights can remain, both today and around the world.

THE ARTIST

Bry Sharland is an artist and art teacher who grew up in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He attended Massachusetts College of Art and Bridgewater State University as an undergraduate and holds master’s degrees from Endicott College and Fitchburg State University.

Bry’s artwork focuses heavily on portraiture and the use of bright, saturated, and often neon color. He primarily works in colored pencil, acrylic paint, and oil paint. His artistic inspirations include John Singer Sargent, Jan Duursema, and Owen Rival.

Bry is the creator of the Pink Triangle Portraits Project, an ongoing quest to create a portrait of every photographed queer victim of the Nazi regime and Paragraph 175. Each portrait is accompanied by researched information about the individual depicted.

Through these portraits, Bry hopes to bring attention to people whose stories have received too little recognition and encourage viewers to consider both the history of LGBTQ+ persecution and the continuing vulnerability of LGBTQ+ rights around the world.