“Altered After” Exhibition
Pioneer Works
[Image: Detail of “Altered After” catalog cover, designed by Jean Foos. Image: Leslie Kaliades, still from Altered After" (1997) Video, black and white, sound, 15:07 min]
This event has ended.
‘Altered After’ provides critical ‘love infused’ AIDS narrative
Pioneering art and activist organization Visual AIDS will exhibit groundbreaking HIV/AIDS related artworks by 15 international artists and collectives.
The exhibit includes: Darrel Ellis (1958–1992), fierce pussy, General Idea, Jerry the Marble Faun, Leslie Kaliades (1961–1999), Kang Seung Lee, Ronald Lockett (1965–1998), Jonathan Molina-Garcia, Cookie Mueller (1949–1989), Raúl de Nieves, Jason Simon, Manuel Solano, Gail Thacker, Julie Tolentino and XFR Collective.
The thought provoking exhibition entitled “Altered After,” curated by Conrad Ventur for Visual AIDS.
This is the 31st exhibition presented by Visual AIDS, which continues to be the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to HIV prevention and AIDS awareness through producing and presenting visual art projects, while also assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS.
Considering themes of time, caregiving, archiving and intergenerational relationships, the artworks in “Altered After” incorporate archaeology, memory, salvaged objects, material migrations, and inherited knowledge to give a fuller picture of the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic. The exhibition includes new works and many that have rarely been seen, in media ranging from painting to video, photography, and sculpture.
The show features Korean artist Kang Seung Lee’s large-scale work Untitled (Garden), which is being shown in the U.S. for the first time. The work relates ephemera from the garden of legendary British filmmaker Derek Jarman to the writing of Joon-soo Oh, a Korean gay rights activist. Both Oh and Jarman died of AIDS-related complications. The exhibition also includes never before seen sculptures by the iconic artist, writer and actress Cookie Mueller, who starred in many of John Waters’ early films. These works were recently uncovered and restored for the exhibition.
Curator Conrad Ventur hopes the show provides a fresh perspective.
“For these artists, stewarding material remnants and activating new meaning from them is a form of care and also a call to bring new engagement and life to what has been lost and left behind,” said Ventur.
Visual AIDS Executive Director Esther McGowan agreed.
“This is an exhibition that touches on personal aspects of the AIDS crisis that are often hidden,” McGowan said. “In his curatorial essay, Conrad Ventur refers to the works in the exhibition as ‘love infused’. I think this is the perfect description of the connection between all of the artists and collectives in ‘Altered After,’ and pinpoints what is special about the mission and work of Visual AIDS.”
Additional exhibition programming includes “Absolute Love,” a performance series curated by Camilo Godoy; “XFR WKND,” a community digitization event hosted by XFR Collective; and “Record Time” a moving image series curated by Carmel Curtis and Leeroy Kun Young Kang at Anthology Film Archives.
About Conrad Ventur
Conrad Ventur is a multimedia artist and horticulturist based in New York City. Through photography, video, installation, and independent publication projects, his art considers queerness, ecology, habitat, home, and pain and memory. Ventur’s work has been exhibited internationally and is held in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
About Visual AIDS
Visual AIDS was founded in 1988, and is known for projects begun at the height of the AIDS crisis like the creation of the Red Ribbon and Day Without Art. It is still the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to HIV prevention and AIDS awareness through producing and presenting visual art projects (exhibitions, books, activist broadsheets, public events), while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS through grants and other programs. Visual AIDS’ mission is to engage communities and utilize contemporary art to provoke dialogue, support and historicize the contributions of HIV+ artists, and preserve the legacy of the AIDS activist movement.
Media
Schedule
from July 10, 2019 to August 18, 2019
Hours: Weds–Sun 12–7 pm.
Opening Reception on 2019-07-10 from 19:00