Publishing as Legacy Work: Drew Sawyer and Silas Munro on Darrel Ellis

Known for his experimental approach to painting and photography, New York–based mixed-media artist Darrel Ellis (1958–1992) explored the psychic terrain between surface, memory and lyric self-representation. Working in part from his late father’s photographs of Black family life in the 1950s, Ellis projected, deconstructed and reimaged his family history, creating uncanny portraits marked by voids and warps. Ellis was on the cusp of major recognition when his life was cut short by AIDS in 1992, at the age of 33.

This program was presented as part of the Classroom at the NY Art Book Fair. NYABF 2022 Classroom programs took place across the street from the Fair, at Dia Art Foundation. The entire Classroom program was also streamed live on Printed Matter's YouTube channel.

Participant Bios

Drew Sawyer is an art historian and a curator who holds the title of the Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator at the Brooklyn Museum. In conjunction with his 2019 exhibition, Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989, he carried out research on the work of Darrel Ellis, which resulted in an essay in OSMOS magazine and an exhibition at OSMOS Address. Subsequently, the Brooklyn Museum acquired several photographic works by Ellis as well as his father Thomas. His most recent exhibition, Jimmy DeSana: Submission, is the first survey on the work of the photographer and opens at the Brooklyn Museum this November.

Silas Munro is a partner of Polymode, a studio that leads the edge of contemporary graphic design for clients in the cultural sphere. He is a Founding Faculty and Co-Chair at the MFA in Graphic Design at VCFA and a contributor to W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America and Curator and Author of Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest (Letterform Archive 2022). Recent publication projects include Darrel Ellis (Visual AIDS, 2021) and Jimmy DeSana: Submission (Brooklyn Museum, 2022).