Visual AIDS Visual AIDS

Visual AIDS partnered with the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art on the final public program for "Images on which to build, 1970s-1990s," curated by Ariel Goldberg.

This event celebrated two pivotal AIDS-related projects: Electric Blanket, a public projection created by Nan Goldin, Allen Frame, and Frank Franca with Visual AIDS in the 1990s, and the work of ART+ Positive, an artist collective that included Lola Flash, Julie Tolentino, Aldo Hernández, Hunter Reynolds, Leon Mostovoy, and Ray Navarro–among others.

Moderated by curator Ariel Goldberg, this event provided space for New York based members of these two groups, Lola Flash, Allen Frame, Frank Franca, and Aldo Hernández, to reflect on endurance and resilience, collective organizing in their art practice, and the material realities of these works.

Award winning ‘Diva living with AIDS’, Rae Lewis-Thornton speaks to Mel Rattue about her comic, “Strutting to Stop Stigma" and Catwalk4Power, a group of women living with HIV who work to empower each other by organizing workshops and fashion shows. They discuss their experiences as women living with HIV, their activism, and how they both learned to speak up to support other women. Read the comic at visualaids.org/comics

Transcript available at https://visualaids.org/blog/podcast-ep4

Artist and HIV advocate Joey Terrill speaks with Carlo Quispe about comics as a tool for addressing fear and stigma in the gay community. They discuss what has changed—and what hasn’t—since the 1980s, and how comics can offer new forms of representation for queer Latinx communities. Read the comic at visualaids.org/comics

Transcript available at https://visualaids.org/blog/podcast-ep3

HIV criminalization activist Robert Suttle speaks with Inés Ixierda and Clio Sady about their comic “Legalize Positivity.” Together, they discuss how HIV criminalization codifies stigma, the origins of the prison-industrial complex, and how prisons perpetuate harm. Read the comic at visualaids.org/comics

Transcript available at https://visualaids.org/blog/podcast-ep2

What does it mean to be living well with HIV? Artists J. Amaro and A. Andrews share their thoughts on this question with Johnny Guaylupo, an HIV advocate working with Housing Works. Spoiler: it’s more than just a pill! Read the comic at visualaids.org/comics

Transcript available at https://visualaids.org/blog/podcast-ep1