Talk + Tour: Eric Rhein, Barton Lidice Beneš (1942-2012), Hunter Reynolds with Emily Colucci

Visual AIDS proudly highlighted the concurrent Chelsea gallery exhibitions of Artist Members Barton Lidice Beneš, Hunter Reynolds and Eric Rhein with a guided tour and discussion of the three shows across two venues. Rhein and Reynolds were joined by writer and curator Emily Colucci to discuss their exhibitions Eric Rhein: Ordained and Hunter Reynolds: Survival AIDS Medication Reminder as well as the exhibition of the late Barton Lidice Beneš: Museology.

The guided tour began at Pavel Zoubok Gallery for Rhein and Beneš' exhibitions and proceeded to PPOW Gallery for Reynold's exhibition.

BARTON LIDICÉ BENEŠ first came to prominence during the 1980s with his whimsical constructions of shredded currency and later with his signature “museums,” gridded arrangements of relics from Ancient Egypt to Hollywood. "Museology" focuses on a series of such works from 1999 that will be presented in New York for the first time. Thematically categorized and methodically mounted, these treasure-troves of quirky and evocative memorabilia impart unexpected associations by aggregating fragmentary objects from an international network of co-conspirators. In one work, an evocative passage of adjacent cells presents a brass button from a Palestinian army uniform, a jellybean from President Reagan’s desk in the Oval Office and a placebo pill from a clinical trial treating CMV, a virus often associated with AIDS related complications.

HUNTER REYNOLDS, for over twenty five years, has been using photography, performance and installation to express his experience as an HIV positive gay man living in the age of AIDS. He was an early member of ACT UP, and in 1989 co-founded Art Positive, an affinity group of ACT-UP to fight homophobia and censorship in the arts. His work addresses issues of gender, identity, socio-politics, sexual histories, mourning, loss, survival, hope and healing. The exhibition at P.P.O.W will feature large-scale photo weavings, a new video work and a Mummification skin that together reflect Reynolds’ vision of himself, his community, and his role as a long-term AIDS survivor.

ERIC RHEIN arrived in New York in 1980 and became a part of the rich fabric of the East Village scene, which included friends and colleagues such as Greer Lankton, Peter Hujar, Luis Frangella, Keith Haring and David Wojnarowicz. The first works he made in New York, his butterfly puppets, constructed for George Balanchine, sparked an exploration of wearable sculptures, which were exhibited internationally and collected by the likes of Holly Solomon and Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman. Featuring work created over the last three decades, "Ordained" emphasizes the tactility, mysticism and intransigent beauty of nature, a material lexicon nurtured during Rhein’s childhood summers in the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky. In "The Order," 2006-2015, gold-filled, silver and copper wires form cellular structures where antiquarian book covers, crystal prisms, salvaged hardware and cast bronze leaves are harmoniously composed. Gathered from locations as varied as Japan, Thailand, France and the streets of New York City, the materials in "The Order" are a record of Rhein’s travels to physical and liminal spaces. The act of charging cast-off objects with a new vitality mirrors the artist’s own spiritual rebirth, experienced through his own evolving relationship with HIV.

EMILY COLUCCI is a freelance art writer, independent curator and co-founder of Filthy Dreams, a blog looking at art through a queer lens and with a touch of camp.