featured gallery for April 2021

Self-Portraits

I did not know the impact of the AIDS Crisis on art history until I experienced in 2010 at White Columns the group exhibition ACT UP New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis, 1987–1993. I was a twenty-year-old student interested in the intersection of art and activism. This exhibition introduced me to powerful examples of artistic and activist practices. Soon after I found myself at Visual AIDS occupied with researching and learning from the work of artists living with HIV and those who died of AIDS related consequences. I recall the generosity of Amy Sadao and Nelson Santos when I first stepped into Visual AIDS. They gifted me all kinds of ephemera, including the books Robert Blanchon and Arts Communities/AIDS Communities: Realizing the Archive Project both published by Visual AIDS. Over the years I return to these two books for reference and inspiration.

When I began to organize "Self-Portraits" I thought of photographs by artists such as John Hanning and Lucas Michael in which they confront notions of survival and performance. I had the pleasure of meeting both of them through Visual AIDS and we are dear friends today. I also looked for self-portraits in Arts Communities/AIDS Communities: Realizing the Archive Project. This book is the catalogue of the 1996 group exhibition by the same name. The exhibition included the work of over one hundred artists from the Visual AIDS Archive Project. Most of the catalogue is made of black and white reproductions of artworks with brief statements written by the artists. Flipping through this book I found that I had drawn a small heart next to a photograph of a self-portrait by Alma “Maritza” Cortes made in collaboration with Ann Meredith. Cortes’ statement above the printed photograph read:

Hi. My name is Maritza. For twenty-three years of my life I have been sleeping. Today I have arisen and blossomed into a SOBER POSITIVE HISPANIC LESBIAN WOMAN with a beautiful lover at my side supporting me.

Alma Cortes’ self-portrait is beautifully simple. The artist sits backwards on a chair and looks directly towards the camera. This self-portrait by Cortes reminded me of two photographs that Sunil Gupta posted on Instagram on July 20, 2020 with the caption, “Today is the 25th anniversary of my HIV diagnosis…” The post included two self-portraits of the artist taken twenty-five years apart. Both photographs were made to commemorate the artist’s HIV diagnosis.

In the self-portrait by Linda Ellis the artist smiles and gazes back at the camera. As I look at this photograph I feel as if the artist is about to give me a strong hug. Ellis’ photograph printed in Arts Communities/AIDS Communities: Realizing the Archive Project is accompanied by a statement that reads in part, “All my life I’ve been beat. But today I’m living even with the disease I have. I’m living today!"

Self-portraits are a representation of an artist made by the artist. Inspired by the self-portraits created by John Hanning, Lucas Michael, Alma “Maritza” Cortes, and Sunil Gupta, I explored the Visual AIDS Artist+ Registry searching for self-portraits by artists using photography. I encountered photographs by Manuel Solano, Luna Luis Ortiz, Nelson Rodriguez, Jack Waters, horea, Liliana Maresca, Kia LaBeija, Kairon Liu, Jacqueline Barnes, Darryl Terrell, and Linda Ellis. In these self-portraits the artists document themselves in difficult, introspective, playful, and joyful moments.