Love Rules: The Harm Reduction Archives of Richard Berkowitz and Heather Edney
MoMA PS1, April 25–October 6, 2025
Organized by Blake Paskal, Programs Manager, Visual AIDS, and Sheldon Gooch, Curatorial Assistant, MoMA PS1 in collaboration with Greg Ellis, Archivist and Curator, Ward 5B Archives.
Visual AIDS presents an exhibition in MoMA PS1's Homeroom gallery that charts the early development and impact of harm reduction across the US in the late-twentieth century. This exhibition features materials from the archives of writers and activists Richard Berkowitz and Heather Edney—photography, DIY publications, and other ephemera—detailing the creation of safe sex guidelines and safer injection practices. Centering the expertise of sex workers and drug users, the presentation highlights how harm reduction strategies used by social services today are informed by the work of those most directly impacted by the AIDS epidemic and drug-related overdoses.
The exhibition builds on Visual AIDS’s ongoing engagement with harm reduction, including its 2020 collaboration with MoMA PS1 and What Would an HIV Doula Do?: Harm Reduction Is Not a Metaphor. A full press release is forthcoming.
Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald
The Bronx Museum, July 18 – October 12, 2025
Curated by Kyle Croft, Executive Director, Visual AIDS
Through sculpture, Reverend Joyce McDonald crafts moving testimonies to themes that have shaped her life: hope, grace, and serenity, but also hardship, loss, and devotion. Her work often depicts figures in repose or embrace, embodying the strength, support, and unconditional love that has sustained her life. The first museum exhibition devoted to her work, Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald surveys the artist’s prolific output since the 1990s, bringing together early works in air-dry clay and found materials with recent glazed ceramics.
An artist member of Visual AIDS and a self-described testimonial artist, McDonald is open about sharing her own story—“from the shooting gallery to the art gallery”—to inspire confidence and dignity in others. The exhibition presents a nuanced view of McDonald’s biography, incorporating archival materials that trace her family and upbringing in Brooklyn’s Farragut houses as well as her decades of exhibiting art with Visual AIDS and her church.
A catalog co-published by Visual AIDS and The Bronx Museum will accompany the exhibition, featuring essays by Croft and Dr. Jareh Das, along with an interview with the artist by Visual AIDS Programs Manager Blake Paskal. A full press release is forthcoming.
About Visual AIDS
Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to supporting artists living with HIV, preserving the legacies of those who have been lost, and shaping conversations about the ongoing HIV crisis through contemporary art. Since 1988, the organization has been at the forefront of AIDS culture, creating the iconic Red Ribbon and initiating Day Without Art, which helped establish World AIDS Day as an international event.
The Visual AIDS Archive contains photo documentation and biographical information about more than 1,000 HIV positive artists, both living and deceased. Through exhibitions, publications, and events, Visual AIDS has been responsible for reintroducing artists such as Nicholas Moufarrege, Hugh Steers, Robert Blanchon, Darrel Ellis, and Chloe Dzubilo to broader audiences. It has also helped launch the careers of artists like Kia LaBeija, Frederick Weston, and Joyce McDonald, among others.
For more information, press inquiries, or images, please contact info@visualaids.org.
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