Featured Gallery - Nov 2022 - Dec 2022
Curator: Sur Rodney (Sur)
Featured Artists: Nancer LeMoins, Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad, Brenton Wolf, David P. Morrow, Elliott Linwood, James K. Fackrell, Larry Eades, Lucas Michael, Michael Zieff (Corey), Richard Sawdon Smith, Steed Taylor, Teresa Fabião, TRET Tierney, Thomas Belloff, Camila Arce, Kairon (Ren-Kai) Liu, Carmine Santaniello, George Dinhaupt, Peter Cramer, J. Hartz, Jerry Frost, Kurt Weston, Patrick Webb, Stiofan O'Ceallaigh, Susan Paxton, M Gordon, Hugo Moro, Jeff Van Dyke, Joe De Hoyos, John Keasler, John Hanning, Joyce McDonald, Riss, Leon McCutcheon, Luis Tavales, Micheal Swank, Phyllis Sanfiorenzo, Sean Black, Stephen Gemberling, Andrew McPhail, Andrew Zealley, Carl George, Christopher Murray, Anthony Viti, Ben Cuevas, Curtis Carman, Laurence Young, Michael Harwood, Pedro Padosan, Peter Robinson, Jr., Roberto Ekholm, Shan Kelley
Nancer LeMoins, what fresh hell, 2022 digital/rizograph, size variable printed by Anthea Black
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As a curator and writer considering Crisis Relief, I proposed through an open call that Visual AIDS archive of artists answer one or both of the following questions: What do you need in times of crisis? and/or What does crisis relief look like? I wanted to see how this would reveal itself in the artwork and what artists chose to unveil.
I considered: how does crisis—with our environment, ongoing plagues, our health care system, our democracy, homelessness, and the heightened awareness of misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, and stigma—play into our need for Crisis Relief. As a creative expression, how might it appear in an artwork?
Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad, at ease., 2021 photograph Photographed by Shoog, IG: @shooglet
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Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad, Chant, 2022 poem
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Brenton Wolf, Headspace, 2021 Mixed media on canvas, 51” x 59”
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David P. Morrow, HIV+ 23 Years, v1, 2022 Digital Animation Still, 4800px x 4800px
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Elliott Linwood, Vessel, New York, 2022 digital photograph, 8.25" x 11"
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James K. Fackrell, Pox - don’t monkey around with LGBTQ+ rights, 2022 found painting and mixed materials, 29" x 20"
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Larry Eades, blazing sunset of heat, 2022 oil on canvas, 35" x 32"
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Lucas Michael, The hand that whirls the water in the pool, 2021 acrylic and india ink on canvas, 60" x 43"
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Michael Zieff (Corey), Beachy Keen, 2022 mixed media on plexiglass, 12" x 24"
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Richard Sawdon Smith, The Unknowing…X 2019-2022 (07707), 2019/22 photograph, size variable
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Steed Taylor, Healing Power of Nature - Air (fog), 2022 photograph, 42" x 56"
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TRET Tierney, In The Valley Of Our Dolls, original circa mid-1990s, current edition 2022 mixed media collage, 10" x 16.5"
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Thomas Belloff, Caterpillar, 2011 Oil, 18" x 24"
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When thinking of a life in crisis relief, I reflect on Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad feeling as one with nature in all its natural earthly beauty, while suffering the addenda of medications required to support health in life and living. Brenton Wolf has me realize crisis relief can be worked out in the erupting beauty of an abstract painting. Relief when coagulation takes effect, as nature would have occur rendered in David P. Morrow’s animation. Preserving the precious is necessary in calling attention to Elliott Linwood’s museum preservation of a cradled vessel. I too pleasure in the aroma of a lover’s odor, as an intimate comfort to crisis relief as James K. Fackrell’s collage has me consider. Try living in a Larry Eades landscape painting as a form of meditative relief. Or, in the wonders discovered in a Lucas Michael experiment from a hand that whirls the water in a pool or Michale Zieff reclaiming the beauty from what remains of what might have been lost. Wanting to cuddle with Richard Sawdon Smith suggesting we roleplay. I’m down for that. Waking up to the natural world as in a Steed Taylor photograph. Comforted as Teresa Fabião’s video (seen below) helps us understand new conditions in life and living. Body transformation. Our required surrender to warnings and protocols to save our life illustrated in TRETierny’s collage. Thoughts of complimentary organics and their potential to have me explore crisis relief with the phantasmagoric magic suggested in mushrooms that appear in Thomas Belloff’s painting. All of these artworks having some undercurrent recognizing our primal being in harmony with NATURE. Each of these works had me recognizing the importance of our commune with our planet's ecosystem and what our bodies need to survive and thrive in nature.
Camila Arce, Ninguna pandemia nos mantiene distantes (No pandemic keeps us distant), 2022 photograph. The first pandemic together was and is HIV/AIDS. The second pandemic is that of COVID 19. We survived both pandemics.
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Kairon (Ren-Kai) Liu, Viruses, Marks, Anger, Sadness, Witch Hunt–My Flesh(TW 2nd Monkeypox Infection Report), 2022 Self-portrait, Photography, 84 x 126 cm
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Carmine Santaniello, Senza Parole, 2022 collage, 16" x 16"
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George Dinhaupt, Untitled, Home Fire #3, 2015 work on paper
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Peter Cramer, CLUBLUM, 2022 Zine created in tribute to Charles Lum (1958-2021), 5.5" x 8.5", 12 pages, color. "To celebrate Charles Lum, affectionately known as Clublum, and his indomitable spirit, I assembled this booklet of zines, postcards, artworks & ephemera from his personal collection and include party portraits to remember friendships as record of his passions for FILM, ART, SEX, POT and all devoted pursuits in between."
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J. Hartz, 3 Figures, 2022 Monotype, 8" x 20"
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Jerry Frost, Amongst Friends, 2022 oil on canvas, 48x48
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Kurt Weston, When the Shame Ends scanned B&W film negative - archival pigment print, 20" x 20"
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Patrick Webb, Nursery Fire, 2021 oil on canvas, 166" x 39"
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Stiofan O'Ceallaigh, Untitled (The Embrace), 2022 acrylic on paper, 23" x 33"
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Susan Paxton, Mariupol 2022, 2022 Oil on canvas, 60cm X 90cm First Place, Home is where the Art is, 2022
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LOVERS/FAMILY/COMMUNITY survive by our caring. We can never do this alone.
Camila Arce standing comfortably naked with a lover. Kairon Liu’s photo of a patient in a hospital bed should be a necessary humanitarian crisis relief for whoever, whenever, wherever and available to everyone. A crisis can fragment how we know ourselves to be as Carmine Santaniello reminds us. George Dinhaupt’s crisis relief in taking care of others. Intimacy that binds us together. Peter Cramer celebrating Club Lum a propagator of film, art, sex, and THC, his toolkit for crisis relief (click here to experience the full zine celebrating the late artist Charles Lum). J. Hartz shows how we carry the texture of our stories differently. Our need for civil community settlements feature in Jerry Frost’s painting. Supportive care begins where shame ends, tenderly realized in a Kurt Weston drawing. Patrick Webb shows the value in organized training with this choreographed cataclysm castaway. Stiofan O'Ceallaigh has me melding into a loved one, forever a crisis relief. The will to survive and prevail in Susan Paxton artwork informs on creating a homestead for humanitarian concerns in the midst of destruction.
M Gordon, A Mouth of Missing Teeth, 2022 photograph, 10" x 10"
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Hugo Moro, Submit, 2021 photograph, size variable
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Jeff Van Dyke, Pause #2, 2020 oil on board, 7" x 9"
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Joe De Hoyos, Black Viral Load Series, 2005 collage on paper, 42" x 17" My health is very important to me. At one point I was down to 10 T-cells. I don't ever want to be in that dark place again. I use a collection of objects floating on a white background to represent the HIV virus as if viewed through a microscope
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John Keasler, Riddle, 2022 hand built ceramic, 5" x 8"
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John Hanning, Again, 2022 urethane, piss, glass beads on wooden cross, 9" x 7" x 1"
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Joyce McDonald, Beauty and the Peace, 2021 air dry clay, mask, eyelashes, 6" x 6.5" x 5"
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Riss, Enough Already, 2022 Painting, watercolour on stretched canvas, 1060mm H x 1060mm W x 60mm D
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Leon McCutcheon, Black Kingman, 2021 mixed media, 11" x 14"
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Luis Tavales, I've seen the light, 2021 acrylic on canvas, 8" x 10"
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Micheal Swank, Transmutción: Shadow Work 03, 2022 Mixed media; decollage photo with monoprint, 10" × 14" (25.4 × 35.6 cm)
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Phyllis Sanfiorenzo, Freedom, 2022 watercolor and ink on paper, 12.5 X 16.5 inches
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Sean Black, Holding Rue's Hands (Jewel Thais-Williams), 2022 archival inkjet/carbon pigment print, 30" x 40"
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Stephen Gemberling, ACTAEON, 2022 wire, cloth, plaster, medicine bottle, incense, 13" x 8" x 25"
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When we have to rely on ourselves we need hope wherever we can find it. Spiritual support for our present and future HOPE has me thinking of Monique Gordon and how she reminds us that a homestead is paramount to post-disaster crisis relief. Hugo Moro’s hot spot with an off-the-dirt-floor platform for comfort relief. Jeff VanDyke presents us with an angel for crisis relief. Joe De Hoyos makes organized chaos all fit together like a dj spinning seamless soundscapes. John Carlos Keasler’s mask opens a third eye as a means to see clearly through crisis. Seeing John Hanning’s dayglow yellow crystals charging a cross and Joyce McDonald’s goddess with gold eyelashes have me feeling hopeful. Riss screams “Enough already!” on the edge of crisis, a cry for hope. Leon McCutcheon’s portrait puts forth a leader to step in for hope’s relief. Luis Mario Tavales takes us to find relief in seeing the light of another day. Michael Swank resting in the comfort of your inner self. Angels present themselves as Phyllis Sanfiorenzo’s guardian spirits. Sean Black records a moment of intergenerational sharing and communion for our present and future. Stephen Gemberling provides for us a protector for our spiritual relief.
Andrew McPhail, FUCK IT, 2019 sequins on bedsheet, 88" x 96"
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Andrew Zealley, The Future is Risky and Possible, 2022 print edition, 24" x 24"
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Christopher Murray, Blown Mine, 2022 Colored pencil on paper, 5.5"X8.5"
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COMPASSION/FUCK OFF, 2020 spray paint on raw canvas, 48" x 78"
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Ben Cuevas, Twitterstorm, 2017 knit wool on canvas, 95" x 75"
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Curtis Carman, TRADEMARK:Kissing In The Dark(jewels 2), 2022 mixed media on canvas, 10" x 10" x 4"
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Laurence Young, When the Bough Breaks, 2022 oil on canvas, 30x40in
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Michael Harwood, I began to consider my mind's disorder a sacred thing (Rimbaud: Rose Cory), 2022 digital image, 4.5" x 6"
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Pedro Padosan, Uma Valsa para Érica Farias (A waltz for Érica Farias), 2012-2021 photo-performance. This photoperformance emerges from the production process of a short film that I directed in 2012 (O corredor) during one of the creation labs. Unfortunately, the files were lost and only recovered in 2021, where I pay this posthumous tribute to the great actress and friend Érica Farias.
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Peter Robinson, Jr., Black Masculinity, 2021-22 photograph and text, 13" x 20"
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Roberto Ekholm, Mapping: C for Cure, Saved by the bell, 2021 photo collage, Giclée Hahnemühle Pearl, 16.5" x 11.7" (42 x 29.7 cm)
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Shan Kelley, All it took to break the tension was that first physical contact. From that moment on, we both understood, everything is mutual., 2021 acrylic on wood panel, 23" x 16"
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Most expectantly some would offer ADVICE to assist, deter, or give-up, bringing me to Andrew McPhail’s FUCK IT, the ultimate in crisis relief. Andrew Zealley suggests positive reinforcement toward understanding crisis relief. Living is risky. Carl George’s video (seen below) has me seeing a row of red, white, and blue kites in formation of a U.S. flag messaging “go fly a kite”. Surrender. Blowing your top can work too, as Christopher Murray has me understand—righteous anger. Anthoni Viti’s expressing the underlying never enough of. Ben Cuevas takes on a bigger battle and makes clear what needs to be done. Curtis Carman reminds us how adorning oneself can be a desired activity to honor beauty in the world needing crisis relief. Lawrence Young has me questioning abstinence versus sex addiction as a form of crisis relief. I began to consider a mind’s disorder as a sacred thing as Michael Harwood informs, while thinking of Pedro Padosan’s expressing body contact for the ultimate in crisis relief. Peter J. Robinson Jr. understanding intersectionality and Black masculinity. A refresher course for crisis relief. Roberto Ekholm rings a bell for a cure provided by nature’s world. And lovingly, when all else fails, Shan Kelly suggests we find a pillow. Sometimes the only way to relief.
Curated By: Sur Rodney (Sur)
Sur Rodney (Sur) is a curator, writer, and archivist. A fixture on the East Village art scene, Sur was co-director of the celebrated Gracie Mansion Gallery (1983–88). In the late 1980s, he shifted his practice to archiving work of artists affected by the growing AIDS pandemic, leading to his involvement with Visual AIDS and helping to establish the Frank Moore Archive Project. He served on the board of Visual AIDS for over a decade and co-curated several exhibitions initiated by Visual AIDS: Arts Communities AIDS Communities Realizing the Archive Project (1996); and A Living Testament of the Blood Fairies (1997). Along with Kris Nuzzi, he co-curated NOT OVER: 25 Years of Visual AIDS at La Galleria LaMaMa. (2013). His three part essay Activism, AIDS, Art, and the Institution was published in the AIDS Art America exhibition catalog (2015). He is often invited to present on the East Village art scene during the 1980s and is a member of the group What Would an HIV Doula Do?