Journal

Visual AIDS publishes essays, interviews, and other writing related to HIV-positive artists and broader cultural histories of HIV and AIDS.

April 2, 2025
Michele Bertolino

In the Eternity of His Life: On Vittorio Scarpati, Joy, and Love

In 1989, Vittorio Scarpati (1953–1989) produced a suite of intricate and expressive drawings while hospitalized at Cabrini Medical Center. The drawings were exhibited the same year in exhibitions organized by his wife, Cookie Mueller, at 56 Bleecker Gallery and his friend, Nan Goldin, at Artists Space. Michele Bertolino reflects on the euphoric undercurrent that shines through Scarpati's work.
March 28, 2025
Jorge Bordello

Dreaming Snakes: Acts of illusion and protest in the work of Sergio Hernández Francés

Research Fellow Jorge Bordello presents the work of Mexican artist Sergio Hernández Francés (1964-1995), who worked across multimedia theater, performance and video. Connecting his early work as an actor and his collaborations with the rock band Santa Sabina to his later experimental video work, Bordello illuminates Sergio’s wide-ranging influence on Mexican cultural history—from the ‘rock en tu idioma’ movement, Mexican video art, and literature.
March 12, 2025
Avik Sarkar

Miss Kitty Litter Green: Spirit Sister, Glamor Goddess

On the 30th anniversary of her passing, Visual AIDS Research Fellow Avik Sarkar discusses the life and work of Miss Kitty Litter Green (1962-1995), a trans feminine and gender nonconforming visual and performance artist. Through interviews, archival materials, and close readings of her artwork, Sarkar pieces together a comprehensive portrait of Miss Kitty's irreverent, excessive, and radically empathetic creative practice.
January 30, 2025
João Eduardo Peçanha de Freitas

Fragmented Bodies, Pulverized Lives: The Self-Referential Art of Rafael França

João Eduardo Peçanha de Freitas presents the work of Brazilian artist, Rafael França (1957-1991), who co-founded the artist collective 3NÓS3 and whose practice in the 1980s ushered in a new era of video art in Brazil. He highlights how the legacy of França's work "continues to resonate in our current age of digital personas and fluid identities, offering prescient insights into the fragmented nature of contemporary existence."
October 2, 2024
Karla Vera

Let's Imagine the Cure Together: Positiva Residency

Earlier this year, nine artists from Latin American came together in Quito, Ecuador as part of the second edition of Positiva Residency, organized in collaboration with Quito’s Centro de Arte Contemporáneo (CAC) and MovHIlizate. Karla Vera, a member of the Positiva team, reports on the project.

Announcements

Thursday February 13, 2025

Visual AIDS Spring Internship