Art AIDS America ran from December 1, 2016 (World AIDS Day) through April 2, 2017, at the Alphawood Gallery in Chicago. We wish to express our deep gratitude to the thousands of people who visited this remarkable exhibition, as well as the many people and institutions that helped make it possible. Please explore our Exhibition website, which is preserved here. Among many other resources, the website contains video documentation of some of the extraordinary programs that took place over the course of the exhibition.
A catalogue of the Chicago version of Art AIDS America will be published later in 2018. This will be a companion volume to the original catalogue published by Tacoma Art Museum and the University of Washington Press, and will highlight the additional works added for the Chicago presentation as well as the extensive programming organized by Alphawood Gallery during the exhibition.
Art AIDS America was organized by Tacoma Art Museum in partnership with The Bronx Museum of the Arts. The exhibition is co-curated by Jonathan David Katz, Director, Visual Studies Doctoral Program at the University at Buffalo (The State University of New York), and Rock Hushka, Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary and Northwest Art at Tacoma Art Museum. The national tour is supported by the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art and Gilead Sciences, Inc. The exhibition and catalogue have been made possible by support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
In Chicago, this exhibition is made possible by the Alphawood Foundation, a Chicago-based, grant-making private foundation working for an equitable, just and humane society. The exhibition will be presented in a new temporary space, the Alphawood Gallery, renovated for this purpose, located in the Foundation’s headquarters building.
Artists
Roger Brown
Born Hamilton, Alabama, 1941
Died Atlanta, Georgia, 1997,
Roger Brown was a prominent member of the Chicago Imagist group, a cohort of artists working in the late 1960s onward who embraced figurative subject matter, unconventional and often “low brow” source material, and personal biography in their artistic practice. Brown was also the only known gay member of the Imagist group and inserted his personal experiences with Chicago’s shifting sexual culture into his artistic practice, from cruising and leather culture in the 1970s to the onset of AIDS in the ‘80s and arts censorship in the ‘90s. Brown was diagnosed with HIV and passed away from complications of AIDS in 1997.
ACT UP NY/Gran Fury
Active New York, New York, 1987–1995
Eric Avery
Born Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1948
David Binder
Born Flint, Michigan, 1961
Robert Blanchon
Born Boston, Massachusetts, 1965
Died Chicago, Illinois, 1999
Lawrence Brose
Born Buffalo, New York, 1951
Brian Buczak
Born Detroit, Michigan, 1954
Died New York, New York, 1987
Jerome Caja
Born, Cleveland, Ohio, 1958
Died San Francisco, California, 1995
Judy Chicago
Born Chicago, Illinois, 1939
Willie Cole
Born Newark, New Jersey, 1955
Ryan Conrad
Born Newport, RI, 1983
Niki de Saint Phalle
Born Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, 1930
Died California, 2002
William Downs
Born Atlanta, Georgia, 1974
Chloe Dzubilo
Born Connecticut, 1960
Died New York, New York, 2011
Joy Episalla
Born Bronxville, New York, 1957
Tony Feher
Born Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1956
Died New York, New York, 2016
Karen Finley
Born Chicago, Illinois, 1956
Gerard Gaskin
Born Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, 1966
Robert Gober
Born Wallingford, Connecticut, 1954
Nan Goldin
Born Washington, DC, 1953
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Born Guáimaro, Cuba, 1957
Died Miami, Florida, 1996
Thomas Haukaas
Born San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1950
Tribal affiliation: Sicangu Lakota
Jenny Holzer
Born Gallipolis, Ohio, 1950
Peter Hujar
Born Trenton, New Jersey, 1934
Died New York, New York, 1987
Derek Jackson
Born Boston, Massachusetts, 1972
Ray Johnson
Born Detroit, Michigan, 1927
Died Sag Harbor, New York, 1995
Barbara Kruger
Born Newark, New Jersey, 1945
LADZ (John Arsenault and Adrian Gilliland)
John Arsenault, Born Haverhill, Massachusetts, 1971
Adrian Gilliland, Born Douglas, Arizona, 1980
Charles LeDray
Born Seattle, Washington, 1960
Rudy Lemcke
Born St. Louis, Missouri, 1951
Edward Lightner
Born Bakersfield, California, 1960
Kalup Linzy
Born Stuckey, Florida, 1977
Patte Loper
Born Denver, Colorado, 1968
Robert Mapplethorpe
Born Floral Park, New York, 1946
Died Boston, Massachusetts, 1989
Patric McCoy
Born Chicago, Illinois 1946
Ann P. Meredith
Born Hot Springs, Arkansas, 1948
Steven Miller
Born Tucson, Arizona, 1968
Frank Moore
Born New York, New York, 1953
Died New York, New York, 2002
Ray Navarro
Born Hawthorne, California, 1964
Died New York, New York, 1990
Catherine Opie
Born Sandusky, Ohio, 1961
Jack Pierson
Born Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1960
Lari Pittman
Born Los Angeles, California, 1952
Michael Qualls
Born Chicago, Illinois, 1961
Died 2005
Brett Reichman
Born Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1959
Hunter Reynolds
Born Rochester, Minnesota, 1959
Marlon Riggs
Born Fort Worth, Texas, 1957
Died Oakland, California, 1994
Tino Rodriguez
Born Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico, 1965
Dean Sameshima
Born Torrance, California, 1971
Robert Sherer
Born Jasper, Alabama, 1957
Rosalind Solomon
Born Highland Park, Illinois, 1930
Larry Stanton
Born Rockville Centre, New York, 1947
Died New York, New York, 1984
Ferenc Suto
Born Easton, Connecticut, 1960
Masami Teraoka
Born Onomichi, Hiroshima-ken, Japan, 1936
Works in Honolulu, Hawaii
The NAMES Project Foundation
Established 1987
Julie Tolentino
Born San Francisco, California, 1964
Anthony Viti
Born Rochester, New York, 1961
Patrick Webb
Born New York, New York, 1955
Albert J. Winn
Born Chester, Pennsylvania, 1947
Died Los Angeles, California 2014
Martin Wong
Born Portland, Oregon, 1946
Died San Francisco, California, 1999
Israel Wright
Born Chicago, Illinois, 1954
Shimon Attie
Born Los Angeles, California, 1957
Luis Cruz Azaceta
Born Havana, Cuba, 1942
Nayland Blake
Born New York, New York, 1960
Ross Bleckner
Born New York, New York, 1949
Roger Brown
Born Hamilton, Alabama, 1941
Died Atlanta, Georgia, 1997
Scott Burton
Born Greensboro, Alabama, 1939
Died New York, New York, 1989
Mark I. Chester
Born Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1950
Sue Coe
Born Tamworth, Staffordshire, England, 1951
Arch Connelly
Born Chicago, Illinois, 1950
Died New York, New York, 1993
David Cannon Dashiell
Born Tokyo, Japan, 1952
Died San Francisco, California, 1993
Jimmy DeSana
Born Detroit, Michigan, 1949
Died New York, New York, 1990
John Dugdale
Born Stamford, Connecticut, 1960
Michael Ehle
Born Salinas, California, 1953
Died Seattle, Washington, 1999
Robert Farber
Born Hartsdale, New York, 1948
Died New York, New York, 1995
Fierce Pussy
Formed New York, New York, 1991
Louise Fishman
Born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1939
General Idea
Active 1969–1994
Camilo Godoy
Born 1989, Colombian; raised in the United States
Daniel Goldstein
Born Mount Vernon, New York, 1950
Keith Haring
Born Reading, Pennsylvania, 1958
Died New York, New York, 1990
Jim Hodges
Born Spokane, Washington, 1957
Jonathan Horowitz
Born New York, New York, 1966
Doug Ischar
Born Honolulu, Hawaii, 1948
Bill Jacobson
Born Norwich, Connecticut, 1955
Deborah Kass
Born San Antonio, Texas, 1952
Kia Labeija
Born New York, New York, 1990
David Lebe
Born New York, New York, 1948
Annie Leibovitz
Born Waterbury, Connecticut, 1949
Keith Lewis
Born Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, 1959
Glenn Ligon
Born Bronx, New York, 1960
Ronald Lockett
Born Bessemer, Alabama, 1965
Died Bessemer, Alabama, 1998
Whitfield Lovell
Born New York, New York, 1959
Marlene McCarty
Born Lexington, Kentucky, 1957
Thomas McGovern
Born Kansas City, Missouri, 1957
Duane Michals
Born McKeesport, Pennsylvania, 1932
Donald Moffett
Born San Antonio, Texas, 1955
Mark Morrisroe
Born Malden, Massachusetts, 1959
Died New York, New York, 1989
Alice O’Malley
Born Buffalo, New York, 1962
Izhar Patkin
Born Haifa, Israel, 1955
Howardena Doreen Pindell
Born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1943
William Powhida
Born New York, New York, 1976
Jesse Finley Reed
Born Duxbury, Massachusetts, 1974
Alon Reininger
Born Tel Aviv, Israel, 1947
Eric Rhein
Born Connecticut, 1961
Oli Rodriguez
Born Chicago, Illinois, 1980
Adam Rolston
Born Los Angeles, California, 1962
Andres Serrano
Born New York, New York, 1950
Kiki Smith
Born Nuremberg, Germany, 1954
Daniel Sotomayor
Born Chicago, Illinois, 1958
Died Chicago, Illinois, 1992
Hugh Steers
Born Washington, DC, 1962
Died New York, New York, 1995
Carl Tadatnick
Born New York, New York, 1956
Joey Terrill
Born Los Angeles, California, 1955
Paul Thek
Born Brooklyn, New York, 1933
Died New York, New York, 1988
Boris Torres
Born Piñas, Ecuador, 1976
Darren Waterston
Born Fresno, California, 1965
Frederick Weston
Born Memphis, Tennessee, 1946
David Wojnarowicz
Born Red Bank, New Jersey, 1954
Died New York, New York, 1992
Thomas Woodruff
Born New Rochelle, New York, 1954
Carrie Yamaoka
Born Glen Cove, New York, 1957