The Last Cupcake

A gender-fluid visual artist and drag performer, Jerome Caja was raised in Cleveland in an observant Catholic family. In 1985 they moved to San Francisco where their career flourished, until they died of AIDS-related illness in 1995 at age 37. Working with implements that one might find in a drag queen’s purse, from nail polish to mascara and lipstick, their work is distinguished by painstaking detail, a dark sense of humor and irony, and a sincere faith in the promise of salvation and redemption.

In Caja’s rendition of the Last Supper, they appear blonde and buxom at the center of the table, in the position of Jesus. They are surrounded by their girlfriends who vie over a lone cupcake. Hanging on the walls behind them are paintings in which Gumby waves from the flames of hell and a Mr. Potato Head putto flies to heaven. Faced with their own mortality, Caja used humor as a survival strategy, while also revering and freely citing canonical works from the history of art.

The minute details in this painting are astonishing when considering that Caja began to lose their vision toward the end of their life and used just the imprecise brushes that come with commercial nail polish. In their last years, they could be found sitting on the floor of their apartment, wearing thick glasses and obsessively making small reliquaries and religious-themed paintings. Much like Medieval monks who painted illuminated manuscripts, artmaking was a daily practice and a form of devotion for Caja.