For the closing program in conjunction with Visual AIDS‘ summer exhibition PERSONS OF INTEREST, Visual AIDS presents a conversational panel on the legacy and lineage of an important group of under-recognized artists: Chloe Dzubilo, Tim Greathouse, Arnold Fern, Hudson, and Affrekka Jefferson.

PERSONS OF INTEREST: LEGACIES ON THE WALL will bring together diverse presenters close to or influenced by each artist: Andrew Durbin on Arnold Fern; Nancy Shaver on Hudson; Viva Ruiz on Chloe Dzubilo; Frederick Weston on Affrekka Jefferson; and Sur Rodney (Sur) on Tim Greathouse. Each presenter will share anecdotes and images about the artwork and lives of these artists, all of whom were deeply impacted by HIV/ AIDS. Consistently throughout our 28 year history, Visual AIDS has been steadfast in our commitment to supporting the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and preserving the legacy of the cultural contributions of the AIDS movement.

Featured artwork in event image: Affrekka Jefferson, Power of Performance, 1997, linoleum, 14 x 11.5.

PARTICIPANT BIOGRAPHIES

Andrew Durbin is the author of Mature Themes and the forthcoming novel Blonde Summer, both from Nightboat Books. He is writing about the work of the painter Arnold Fern and lives in New York.

Viva Ruiz is a community-educated multi-hyphenated artist and organizer born and raised in Jamaica Queens, the daughter of Ecuadorian immigrants. Viva was mentored and mothered by Chloe Dzubilo, a life changing relationship that began in 1996 and continues to this day.

Nancy Shaver has been showing eclectic, object-based work in New York City since 1974. Hudson of Feature Inc. in Chicago presented her work in 1987. From 2000 to 2014 she showed work at Feature Inc. in New York City.

Frederick Weston is a visual artist working to find his place through various mediums including collage, mood boarding, story boarding, mail-art, copy-art, and happenings. He was friends with Paula “Affrekka” Jefferson, who was a gifted and remarkable artist as comfortable working with pencil and paper as with wood-working tools and printmaking.

PERSONS OF INTEREST, curated by Sam Gordon for Visual AIDS, features a wide cross section of Visual AIDS artist members and friends. The term, “person of interest” often identifies someone in an investigation that possesses characteristics that merit further attention. The investigation presented here is a collection of drawing, painting, photography, performance, video, and sculpture.

PERSONS OF INTEREST, presented by Visual AIDS at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division features the trained and self taught, long term survivors and the prematurely lost, and individuals who live for us very much in the present, some only in our hearts and minds. On view through Sunday, September 18, 2016.

The exhibition includes work by Raynes Birkbeck, Mark Carter, Ben Cuevas, Chloe Dzubilo, Arnold Fern, Tim Greathouse, Keith Haring, Hudson, Affrekka Jefferson, Jerry the Marble Faun, Joyce McDonald, Lucas Michael, Nicolas Moufarrege, Luna Luis Ortiz, Hugh Steers, Hunter Reynolds, Tseng Kwong Chi, Muna Tseng, and Frederick Weston.

Check out Holland Cotter’s review of Persons of Interest (and related exhibitions) that appeared in The New York Times on July 29, 2016.