Visual AIDS Talk + Tour: Martin Wong Exhibition with Julie Ault, Sergio Bessa and Alex Fialho

To highlight the exhibition "Martin Wong: Human Instamatic," the first major solo museum retrospective of the work of Martin Wong in decades, Julie Ault, artist and friend of Martin Wong; Sergio Bessa, The Bronx Museum of the Arts Director of Curatorial and Education Programs; and Alex Fialho, Visual AIDS Programs Director, led a tour and discussion of the exhibition, highlighting Martin Wong's provocative life and artwork.

This tour and discussion took place on the second to last weekend of the exhibition, included in New York Times co-chief art critic Holland Cotter's Top 10 Best of 2015. Read Cotter's exhibition review here.

Julie Ault is an artist, curator, writer, and editor who works both independently and collaboratively, often engaging historical inquiry. She frequently adopts curatorial and editorial roles as forms of artistic practice. Ault has enthusiastically followed Martin Wong’s work since the early 1980s; they were friends and Wong’s work has been included in many exhibitions organized by Group Material and by Ault. Ault's recent exhibitions include Afterlife: a constellation for the 2014 Whitney Biennial and recently Galerie Bucholz, NY and the collaboratively organized Macho Man Tell It To My Heart, Artists Space, 2013–14, featuring works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Martin Wong, Peter Hujar, Paul Thek, Tony Feher and many others. Ault’s edited and authored publications include (FC) Two Cabins by James Benning (2011); Show and Tell: A Chronicle of Group Material (2010); Felix Gonzalez-Torres (2006); Come Alive! The Spirited Art of Sister Corita (2006); and Alternative Art New York 1965–1985 (2002). Ault co-founded the NYC based collaborative Group Material in 1979. Group Material presented such projects at AIDS Timeline in 1989.

Alex Fialho, Programs Manager at Visual AIDS, has facilitated projects and conversations around both the history and immediacy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, utilizing art to maintain HIV/AIDS visibility, consider its legacy, and galvanize contemporary response. He has presented his research on the art of Glenn Ligon and Keith Haring at the College Art Association and NYU Fales Library. He also curates exhibitions for Lower Manhattan Cultural Council as Research and Curatorial Associate, and is a frequent contributor to Artforum.com and Artforum International Magazine.

Co-curator of "Martin Wong: Human Instamatic", Sergio Bessa completed his PhD in art education from New York University and an MFA from Pratt Institute, and has organized several critically acclaimed exhibitions throughout Europe, in New York, and at the Bronx Museum, including Re: La Chinoise, Baumgartner Gallery, New York, 2002; Animating Fahlstrom, Institut d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France, 2002; and Intersections: the Grand Concourse at 100 (2008), which was funded in part by the Graham Foundation. His essays and articles appear such publications as, Öyvind Fahlström: The Art of Writing, Architectures of Poetry, Zingmagazine.