Lucas Michael at Silverman / NADA

Lucas Michael
Between You And I A Silence
NADA Hudson

Basilica, Hudson
Hudson, New York
July 30 & 31
11am - 7pm


Silverman Gallery
804 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA 94109 

info@silverman-gallery.com

Staying Connected

Staying Connected 

by Lester Strong

via A&U  July 25th, 2011  

Curator John Chaich and Visual AIDS team up together in the show Mixed Messages to remind us that apathy is no cure for aids...

 David Wojnarowicz, Untitled (One day this kid...), 1990. Courtesy of The Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W Gallery, New York

The use of text as visual art has a distinguished past: Hebrew and Islamic art, medieval illuminated manuscripts, post-World War I Russian Constructivism are a few examples that come to mind. 

Curator John Chaich has updated that tradition into our contemporary world, placing it in an AIDS context, in a recent (June 2 through July 3) exhibition for Visual AIDS titled Mixed Messages at one of New York City’s premier alternative arts venues, La MaMa La Galleria.

AIDS and HIV, acronyms though they are, have had their own memorable histories as words. First introduced in the early 1980s to name a newly discovered disease—Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome—and its cause—Human Immunodeficiency Virus—they themselves quickly acquired an air of mystery and threat. In the first years of what later became the worldwide pandemic we know today, AIDS had no known cure or treatment options, unclear modes of transmission, and an unpleasant death as its only certain outcome. It also burst on the world as a disease associated mainly with gay men, which meant that, especially in the United States, homophobia played its part in the attempted social ostracism of those having it and calls by right-wing politicos of the day for their incarceration in concentration camps.

That started to change in the mid-1990s with the introduction of effective antiretroviral medicines that didn’t cure AIDS but transformed it into a manageable, chronic illness like diabetes or asthma. The result: By now, almost precisely on the thirtieth anniversary of the first reported cases of people with the disease, the terms AIDS and HIV have moved largely into the background of our culture, scarcely mentioned on newscasts or in the print media any longer, while all the hysteria of several decades ago has vanished into what often feels like a vast indifference on the part of the public at large. 

Jack Pierson, Desire/Despair, 1998, c-print, 20 x 16 inches, AP 2/2. Courtesy of the artist and Cheim & Read, New York

Enter John Chaich and Mixed Messages. When contacted about the exhibit and asked how it came about, Chaich traced it back to an interest he developed while working for a Master of Fine Arts degree in Communications Design regarding how effective designing with words alone is in communicating messages rather than designing with a combination of words and images. “As a communications designer, I’m a writer first,” he explained. “I would argue that presenting words alone is actually a very visual experience, and I’ve always been interested in playing with words on the page and through the spoken word.” 

Mixed Messages was certainly about words. And it’s no surprise it was also about AIDS. Chaich began his career as an HIV counselor and community educator in his hometown of Cleveland before moving to New York City for graduate school. Since then he has presented at national conferences on AIDS and the arts, and has worked for almost a decade with Visual AIDS on a number of their projects. 

“For my degree,” he said, “I began to research which campaigns historically and today had to do primarily with words only. And given my personal history and knowledge of art and design in response to HIV/AIDS, many of the examples I was looking at and collecting were drawn from that world. The more I collected, and the more HIV/AIDS-specific examples I came across, the more passionate I felt about exploring how words have shaped our understanding of HIV/AIDS and how we are challenged when those words are visually presented.” 

Andrew Graham, AIDS is God’s Curse, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 12 by 9 inches. Courtesy of the artist

Mixed Messages in the forty-three pieces of art it presented contained many words—along with a number of images—that converged on HIV/AIDS from several directions. In some cases the connection is obvious: Gran Fury’s The Four Questions t-shirt (“Do you resent people with AIDS? Do you trust HIV-negatives? Have you given up hope for a cure? When was the last time you cried?”) (2009); Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s Untitled (1989), where white letters on a black background spell out the timeline “People with AIDS Coalition 1985 Police Harassment 1969 Oscar Wilde 1891 Supreme Court 1986 Harvey Milk 1977 March on Washington 1987 Stonewall Rebellion 1969”; or Andrew Graham’s ironic appropriation of a Fred Phelps’ hate message in his AIDS is God’s Curse (2009). In other cases, the connection is less direct but equally unambiguous: Nightsweats & T-Cells’ simple message: Annoy Them…Survive (2011); Yoko Ono’s postcard-size Touch Me (2008); or Jack Pierson’s Desire/Despair (1998), in which the words meet in a horizontal-vertical embrace at the letter S. There was also David Wojnarowicz’s powerful Untitled (One day this kid…) (1990), a highly confessional piece juxtaposing an image of the artist as a boy with text linking the homophobia (and by implication AIDS-phobia) he would eventually face in his life to his growing awareness of his desire for other boys. 

"Untitled", 1989, framed silkscreen on paper, 16½ x 21¾ inches, edition of 250, 10 APs, No. 70 of 250. Published by Public Art Fund, NY © The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, Courtesy of Andrea Rosen, NY

Clearly HIV/AIDS has generated a good many messages over the decades in a variety of contexts: sexual, emotional, social, political, medical, even religious. Mixed Messages pulled them together in a way that vividly underlined the issues raised by the disease which as individuals and as a society we have been forced to confront. “I hope the works in this show will dialogue with each other in the viewers’ minds as they look a them,” Chaich said during the course of the interview. “I hope they will trigger discussions, arguments, poetry, choirs, a cacophony of responses.”  He continued: “One of the simplest but most profound messages I ever heard about HIV/AIDS came from a staff psychologist at the AIDS organization where I started my career. She said, ‘AIDS is a crisis of connections.’” 

Perhaps one of the more profound messages viewers could take away from the exhibition, especially in the face of so much apparent indifference on the part of the public at large to this pandemic on its thirtieth anniversary, is that the art in the show was created by people very much in touch with their outrage at and concern over the effects of AIDS. Apathy has never solved a problem. John Chaich is reminding us we must remain connected to our own outrage and concern as individuals and a society if we want to see the crisis come to an end.

Lester Strong is Special Projects Editor for A&U.

Laurence Young at Alden Gallery

L A U R E N C E  Y O U N G

Opening/New Works  July 22nd. 6-9pm @ The Alden Gallery 423 Commercial St., Provincetown, MA Exhibit runs through Aug 11th
"Over Shadowed" oil/wax on canvas, 18 x 24 in. "String of Pearls" oil/wax on canvas, 30 x 40 in. "Sunday at the Shore" oil/wax on canvas, 30 x 40 in. "Butterflies" oil/wax on canvas, 24 x 18 in.	Please join us for the Artist's Reception. For additional images log onto www.laurenceyoung.com

NewFest Opening Night: We Were Here

WE WERE HERE (trailer) from David Weissman on Vimeo.

1970s. San Francisco. A promised land for those who had enough of the closet and were looking for a real community that would support them, not disown them. David Weissman's incredibly moving portrait of a moment in time, "We Were Here," follows the story of five members of that loving and affectionate community as they recount their days enduring one of their lives' biggest challenges -- the AIDS crisis. With stories of love, loss, and brother- and sister-hood, "We Were Here" showcases one city's citizens coming together to fight for the lives and humanity of everyone they can.

Screening at NewFest on July 21 at 7:00 PM.

An Encore Screening has been added Tuesday, July 26 at 3 PM at the Cinema Village.

NewFest - July 21-28, 2011

NewFest begins July 21-28, 2011.  NewFest is dedicated to bringing together filmmakers and audiences in the building of a community that passionately supports giving greater visibility and voice to a wide range of expressions and representations of the LGBT experience.  Below are some HIV/AIDS themed films featured in this years NewFest program. 
 

heart breaks open

Fri, Jul 22, 6:00 PM Cinema Village 1

Jesus is a model queer activist within the Seattle LGBT community, but that doesn't stop him from having unprotected sex and cheating on his boyfriend. When Jesus finds out he's contracted HIV, he descends into madness until a stranger pulls him from the brink and forces him to imagine a better future. Billed as a semi-improvised docu-narrative made through collaborative storytelling, "heart breaks open" is a powerfully acted, achingly beautiful story about the love, and accountability, that binds our community together.

Now Here

Sun, Jul 24, 11:30 AM SVA 1

It's 1985, and Franco has found out that his lover has contracted HIV. It's his birthday and he's finding it hard to celebrate.

Red Red Red

Fri, Jul 22, 10:30 PM Cinema Village 2

David Oscar Harvey explores the ways in which the state of Iowa regulates the bodies and persons of people with HIV in his essay film, "Red Red Red." With intelligence – and humor – Harvey poses questions like "Why are people with HIV required to register with the state?" and "Why is there a local convenience store chain called Kum 'N' Go?"

Jerry Frost at Magnet, SF

 

www.magnetsf.org

Play Smart - Collect Yours Now!

Play Smart: Safer Sex Trading Cards

Sexy Pin-up Trading Cards for HIV-Prevention

NYC Panel Discussion & Signing: Thursday, September 29, 2011 6-8PM

Play Smart trading cards, produced by Visual AIDS, are a straight-forward and sexy approach to promote harm reduction, HIV testing, and post-exposure prophylaxis among gay men. Play Smart packages include trading cards, a sticker, condoms, and lube. The back of each card gives information to encourage smarter choices about safer sex. The Summer 2011 set of Play Smart features the work of New York City artists Michael Alago, Mike Harwood, Luna Luis Ortiz and Paul Mpagi Sepuya. There are a total of 12 sexy and diverse images in all – something for everyone.

Play Smart is is distributed for free and currently available at bars, health centers, HIV/AIDS, and LGBT organizations. Click here for a growing list of locations and more information on how you can help distribute Play Smart too!

Upcoming Play Smart event:

Join Visual AIDS & the Play Smart models and artists

Panel discussion, reception, and card signing

Thursday, September 29, 2011, 6-8 PM

Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation 26 Wooster Street NYC 

Visual AIDS utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.  Every year Visual AIDS commissions visual artists to create open-ended editions that promote HIV prevention and AIDS awareness as a response to the lack of creative and compelling HIV/AIDS messages. Past editions have included tote bags, stickers, postcards, posters, buttons, e-cards, and even balloons.

Fire Island Dance Festival

Fire Island Dance Festival, July 15-17, is produced by and benefits Dancers Responding to AIDS (DRA), a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA).  Each year, scores of famed and fast-rising dance artists perform on a waterfront stage specially built for the festival, with the Great South Bay as a backdrop.

Art at Magnet - Call for Entries

Magnet, the gay men’s health center and community space in the Castro, is pleased to announce its Call for Entries to artists who would like to show work at Magnet during the 2012 calendar year.
 
Entries will be accepted from June 1, 2011 through July 31, 2011.  To submit, please send an email to info@magnetsf.org. Entries can also be mailed or dropped off at Magnet. Our address is 4122 18th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114. (Hours: Mon-Tue 11-6, Wed-Fri 11-9 & Sat 11-6)
 
Entries should include the following:

1. A brief paragraph indicating how your work supports Magnet’s mission to promote the health and well being of gay men in San Francisco. 

2. A copy of your artist’s statement and brief biography. 

3. Up to 10 images of your artwork to be reviewed. Images can be sent as an attached image (.jpg or .png only), PDF, on CD, photos, or copies. Links to websites will not be considered. Please include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you would like your items returned.
 
Magnet encourages submissions from all artists. Artists who have shown their work before January 2011 are welcome to resubmit.  Artists selected to display their work will be notified by September 30, 2011.
 
Thank you for your interest in displaying your art at Magnet. Please direct questions to info@magnetsf.org. No calls, please.

Red Hot + video contest

 

HIV AND AIDS THROUGH A CONTEMPORARY LENS

For more than 20 years, the Red Hot Organization has been inviting iconic artists to record music to raise money and awareness to fight HIV/AIDS around the world. Now, Amplify and Red Hot are turning this music — including songs from U2 and Wu-Tang Clan to Willie Nelson and The National — over to a new generation of artists for the Red Hot+ video contest. 

Red Hot+ is an opportunity for young artists and filmmakers to explore our unique experiences growing up with and being impacted by HIV and AIDS. More than two decades after the HIV/AIDS crisis began, our generation has its own stories to tell. Love stories and elegies, tales of quiet defiance, stigma, and public confrontation. Through short films and PSAs, the Red Hot+ contest aims to provide the catalyst (and the soundtrack) for a new conversation about HIV and AIDS.

It's time to take a new look at HIV and AIDS through a contemporary lens. This is about young people. It's about you. It's about Red Hot + us.

See the full rules and entry guidelines here.

The Normal Heart closes July 10, 2011

www.thenormalheartbroadway.com

Leith Semmens - Urbania

A Thin Line - Visual Aid (SF)

I Don't Have A Clue... Curated by Aaron Krach

Alan Walker, Paper Women of the World (detail), 1971-96

Every month, Visual AIDS invites guest curators, drawn from both the arts and AIDS communities, to select several works from the Frank Moore Archive Project. This month, Aaron Krach curates the on-line web gallery, featuring Archive Members; Osvaldo Barrocal, Amos Beaida, Freddy Borges, George Box, Bob Burnside, Scott Burton, Martin Freeman, M. Gens, Rubin Gonzalez, Tim Greathouse, Martha Iriarte, Louis Miller, Mooshka, Chuck Nanney, David Nelson, Hal Scheppner, James Simmonds, Clifford Smith, Alan Walker and Frederick Weston.

Amos Beaida, Untitled, 1998, ink on paper, 8" x 10"

From the Curator's Statement:

I don’t have a clue why artists make things we don’t really need. But I’m glad they did. The art in this gallery inspires me because they are “real” in an art world that celebrates fiction; some are Minimal in a world that considers Minimalism empty and boring; others are crafty in a culture where anything hand-made is second-class, feminine, ethnic, and thus unworthy of serious consideration.  (read more)

About the Curator:
Aaron Krach is an artist and writer based in New York City. His projects unravel in galleries, apartments, and public spaces. Krach is a conceptual artist, though he prefers the term, Emotional Conceptualism for his work. He believes art should be more personal and filled with more life, humor, and sex. Current projects include work with suicide and public libraries; “Insecurity” t-shirts; mail-art about Dolly Parton; and a photography book about “Things To Tell Your Lover.” His first novel, “Half-Life” was published by Alyson Books; his second novel is still searching for home. Krach will receive his MFA from SUNY Purchase in 2012.

Mooshka, Untitled, 2001, mixed media, 2" x 6"