Ugly Pageant

Jerome Caja (b. 1958, Cleveland, OH; d. 1995, San Francisco, CA) was an artist and drag performer based in San Francisco in the late eighties and early nineties. As a fixture of the queer underground scene and host of myriad parties and pageants amidst the AIDS crisis, Jerome become a recognizable persona known for his irreverent style of drag and outrageous performance antics. Concurrently, Jerome's artwork rose to local prominence through a string of exhibitions at San Francisco art spaces like Art Lick, Force Nordstrom, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and SFMoMA.

Jerome's midwestern Catholic school upbringing was foundational to both the physical and representational aspects of his work from the late eighties until his untimely death due to complications from AIDS in 1995. Caja's paintings, intimate in scale and primarily composed in nail polish and glitter on found materials like plastic tip trays or scraps of wood, lace, and other refuse, often resemble Catholic miniatures, icons, or relics, depicting saints and other figures in bawdy, grotesque scenes.

Most recently, Caja's work has been shown in institutional exhibitions including For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; The Body, the Host: HIV/AIDS and Christianity, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH; and Art After Stonewall, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, and Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York, NY; Patricia & Philip Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL; and Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH.