NYABF Book Launch, DUETS: Nicolas Mourfarrege, with LJ Roberts and Sur Rodney (Sur)

To launch DUETS: Dean Daderko & Elaine Reichek in conversation on Nicolas A. Moufarrege, artist LJ Roberts and archivist Sur Rodney (Sur) discussed the art and life of Nicolas Moufarrege (1947–1985) in a conversation moderated by Visual AIDS Programs Director Alex Fialho. An Egyptian-born Lebanese raised in Beirut, Moufarrege lived briefly in Paris before landing in New York in the early 1980's. He molded a complex mixture of his cultural roots into idiosyncratic embroidered artworks and a distinct curatorial and critical writing sensibility that are highlighted in the DUETS publication through an interview between curator Dean Daderko and artist Elaine Reicheck. Artist LJ Roberts writes the publication's foreword and archivist Sur Rodney (Sur) contributes the afterword. Visual AIDS initiated DUETS to foster dialogue between artists, writers and activists about their creative process and issues around HIV/AIDS, including maintaining the legacies of those like Moufarrege lost too early to AIDS.

PARTICIPANT BIOGRAPHIES

LJ Roberts is an artist and writer living who splits their time between Brooklyn, NY and Joshua Tree, CA. They teach at Parsons School of Design in New York City. LJ was introduced to the work of Nicolas Moufarrege in 2013 in the exhibition NOT OVER: 25 Years of Visual AIDS. www.ljroberts.net

Sur Rodney (Sur) is an archivist, writer, curator, and artistic collaborator. He was introduced to Nicolas Moufarrege as a journalist, when Moufarrege was the first to announce the East Village art scene as a newly developing phenomenon in Arts Magazine, following leads that Sur had introduced him to. Moufarrege soon after became an integral part of the scene, as an artist, and abandoned journalism under the observant eye of Sur who during that time had joined forces with Gracie Mansion as co-director of the Gracie Mansion Gallery from 1982–88.