No Bios

Curated by Isis Awad for Visual AIDS
EFA Project Space
May 11–June 24, 2023

Featuring artwork by Jerome Caja (1958–1995), Chloe Dzubilo (1960–2011), Stevie Cisneros Hanley, Reverend Joyce McDonald, Sofia Moreno, Pamela Sneed, Tabboo!, and D’Angelo Lovell Williams

Gallery Hours: Wed–Sat, 12–6PM
Opening Reception: Thurs, May 11, 6–8PM

No Bios showcased artists whose practice is deeply personal and biographical in nature, while resisting the art world’s tendency to reduce marginalized artists to their identity markers. Drawing in part from the Visual AIDS archive and artist registry, curator Isis Awad brought together a group of queer and trans artists of color, some of whom are living and thriving with HIV, alongside artists who have been lost to AIDS-related illnesses. In contrast to the somber, tragic, and alarmist overtones that often frame representations of marginalized identities—especially those intertwined with HIV and AIDS—No Bios presented mischievously playful and beautifully mundane artworks that speak to a determination to exist beyond mere survival. A publication designed by Isai Soto accompanied the exhibition.

“This exhibition has nothing and everything to do with HIV. Some of the artists in the show live with HIV, some of them don’t. Some of them are still with us, and some of them aren’t. This is not an attempt to make sense of anything, or theorize a human’s relationship with a virus. What ties the artists in this show together is a desire to make art against all odds; art that does not capitalize on its makers’ marginalized identities.” — Isis Awad

No Bios was presented as part of Visual AIDS’ annual exhibition program, which centers the organization’s expansive and living archive of artwork by HIV-positive artists. Each summer, Visual AIDS invites guest curators to organize thematic exhibitions that bring works represented in the archive into conversation with other contemporary artists.

Visual AIDS exhibitions are supported by a multiyear grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, as well as general operating grants from the Lambent Foundation, the Marta Heflin Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts.