Visual AIDS

Two Years Ago – VAVA-Voom Arrivals with Willy – #ThrowbackThursday

May 16th, 2014

Visual AIDS VAVA Voom Seventh Annual Vanguard Awards and Spring Benefit

Monday, May 14, 2012 6:00p
Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Arts New York, NY

Hosted by John Fugelsang, the evening will feature cabaret performances by Joey Arias and Daniel Isengart.

This year’s Visual AIDS Vanguard Award recipients are photographer and writer Frank Jump, founders of P.P.O.W gallery Wendy Olsoff and Penny Pilkington, as well as writer, activist, and entrepreneur Sean Strub. The awards will be presented to them respectively by Rosario Dawson, Martha Wilson, and Urvashi Vaid.

VAVA VOOM! The 9th Annual Visual AIDS Vanguard Awards & Spring Gala on Monday! Tickets Still Available

May 11th, 2014

by Frank.

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CLICK FOR LINK TO VISUAL AIDS

VAVA VOOM

Monday, May 12, 2014 from 6-9 PM

The Prince George Ballroom

15 East 27th Street, NYC

The 9th Annual Visual AIDS Vanguard Awardshonoring:

Bureau (Marlene McCarty & Donald Moffett)

Dr. Brian Saltzman

Kia Michelle Benbow (Kia LaBeija)

Hosted by Mike Albo

Performances by John Kelly, House of LaBeija + Special Guest from PIPPIN

Music: DJ Aaron Tilford

Cocktails & Light Fare

Art Auction & Raffle Prizes

The Visual AIDS Vanguard Awards recognize the contributions of individuals who, through their work, talent and dedication, strengthen our communities and reinforce the mission of Visual AIDS.

Tickets Available Here

Seeing the World Through the Lens of HIV: – A workshop with Frank Jump @ NYPL East 125th Street, Harlem

Mar 6th, 2014

by Frank.

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— IN SUPPORT OF THE NYPL EXHIBITION: WHY WE FIGHT: REMEMBERING AIDS ACTIVISM – Visual AIDS

DATE:

Thursday, March 13, 2014

AT 3:30PM–4:30PM

LOCATION:

125th Street Library
224 East 125th Street (Near Third Ave.),
New York, NY, USA

Seeing the World Through the Lens of HIV: ‘The City’ Reveals a Metaphor for Survival – A workshop with Frank Jump

“Learning you have a virus that may ultimately kill you changes the way you see the world,” says photographer Frank Jump. It was with this in mind that he began to see and interact with the world differently. In this workshop Frank will share his journey bringing together, the city, art and survival and by the end you will be invited to see the world differently and have new skills on how to share your vision.

Programs are free and begin at 3:30pm.
No previous art experience is required.
Materials will be provided.
Ages 12 to 18

ABOUT
Frank H. Jump, is a photographer whose work has been exhibited at the New-York Historical Society, the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, and featured by The New York Times, The London Observer, Archaeology Magazine, New York Magazine, and many other publications. Jump is the author of Fading Ads of New York City (History Press, 2011) and the Fading Ad Blog. He is an Instructional Technology specialist at the New York City Department of Education. Jump is a long-term survivor of HIV and a founding member of the AIDS activist group ACT UP. He has been a member of the Visual AIDS archive since 1997 and was the 2012 recipient of the Visual AIDS Vanguard Award (VAVA Voom).

Visual AIDS teams up with the New York Public Library to present a series of artist workshops for young adults in conjunction with their exhibition, WHY WE FIGHT: Remembering AIDS Activism. This series of interactive workshops, lead by artists living with HIV, will take place at library branches across Manhattan and the Bronx. Participants will gain artistic and creative skills, and learn more about HIV/AIDS history and activism.

MAC AIDS Fund is the Lead Corporate Sponsor of the Why We Fight exhibition and related programming.This exhibition is made possible through the generosity of Hermes Mallea and Carey Maloney, with additional support from the LGBT Initiative of The New York Public Library. Time Warner is a founding supporter of the LGBT Initiative.Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, and Jonathan Altman.

Seeing the World Through the Lens of HIV: – A workshop with Frank Jump — Visual AIDS.

The Eighth Visual AIDS Vanguard Awards – VAVAVOOM! – Monday May 6, 2013

Apr 28th, 2013

by Frank.

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Dr. Tucker’s For All Pain – Train Operator Confrontation 1998 – Days with Art – AIDS IS NOT OVER

Jul 19th, 2012

by fadingad.

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I finally found the original slide! When I was editing the book [Fading Ads of New York City, History Press 2011] I had to use an old scan from 2000 because the slide was being elusive. Recently, a very popular TV show [suspense intended] requested the rights to use this image for a set in their Fall 2012 season and I finally put my finger on this slide – well actually I was very careful not to put my finger on the slide.

Back Story

From 1997 – 2000, when I was furiously combing the streets of NYC to document as many fading ads as I could, the view from the street of Dr. Tucker’s 59 For All Pain was not good enough. I had to get it from the train rider’s perspective as it was meant to be seen. That image proved to be unimpressive. So I climbed down to the train walkway and walked towards the sign. The oncoming train stopped and the train operator stuck his head out of the window and told me to get my “F*#@ing ass on the train.” So I snapped this shot in a hurry and ran back to the platform and down the stairs to avoid getting arrested. Fourteen years later, the book finally gets published and Amy Sadao (VisualAIDS) wrote a wonderful essay for it and chose to speak about this particular image.

Days with Art
Lingering in Frank Jump’s Images

The poignancy in Frank Jump’s chosen subject matter, his disappearing ads, transforms the language of advertising into a poetics of signs. And there is nothing forgettable about either the images or Frank’s inspired pursuit of art, and of living. One thinks of Atget’s photographs of the façades and storefronts in a disappearing Paris, but Jump’s compositions are decidedly less formal. Or perhaps it can be said that there is still room to breathe in Jump’s images, as Atget’s are sealed off (if brilliantly so).

Much has been made of the connections between Jump’s photographs and his own biography. Both elucidate the culture of a specific moment. Both survive, beautifully so, even surrounded by loss. Both are deeply inspiring. One work that continues to hold me is the triptych Confrontation (Dr. Tucker’s 59 for All Pain). It documents an advertisement painted in white text on brown, forming a banner running the length of a windowless brick building. Read left to right, the three photographs shift from sunlight-heightened contrast to an overcast, slow fadedness and ultimately include the elevated subway track, underscoring the proximity of the building (and photographer) to the approaching train. In the last, Jump has shifted the color of the clouds and the sign to an impossible luminosity. In each, the presence of 59 and PAIN and the sometimes legible FOR ALL form an unshakeable chant, not unlike the raps and beat poetry Jump composed for the early days of ACT UP.

With the generosity and leadership of artists, Visual AIDS utilizes visual art to promote dialogue about HIV. We document the work of HIV-positive artists and pay tribute to the creative contributions of AIDS activism—and we are proud to honor the extraordinary photography of Frank Jump.

After almost a decade of attempting to fathom and alter the human devastation, in 1989, Visual AIDS inaugurated a Day Without Art. Early exhibitions of Jump’s Fading Ad Campaign were part of a shift in this landmark art action that coincided with the World Health Organization’s AIDS Awareness Day on December 1. Originally, the day was to be a cultural intervention: shrouding works of art and darkening the galleries in the face of the AIDS crisis. The gestures were resonant. Tom Sokolowski, a founding member of Visual AIDS, described the event’s importance to the New York Times: “The language of art speaks in different ways from normal discourse. Perhaps those of us who are engaged in the making and displaying of works of art can in some way use the medium to dispel ignorance and bigotry that have surrounded what began simply as a medical problem.” After the advent of drug therapies that extended the lives of those who had access, it became more urgent to share the creative contributions of HIV-positive artists. Jump’s show at the Gershwin Gallery in 1997 and his 2000 exhibition at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center were leading examples of a new Day With[out] Art.

Like the Visual AIDS Archive Project, in which he is a long-standing artist member, Frank Jump’s art practice creates a record of ephemeral histories. Even without the awareness of his roots in formative New York gay and AIDS activism, it’s impossible not to characterize Frank as innately collaborative. At the height of publicity and interest in Fading Ad, Frank took the opportunity to speak about HIV. He has always been open about his longtime survivor status and was instrumental in linking his photographs with the message that “AIDS is not over.”

It’s worth mentioning that Jump’s early adoption of the web to share his photographs challenged an individualized idea of art and the singular, marketable, finite work of the artist. When Frank opened the Fading Ad Gallery in Brooklyn in the mid-2000s, he programmed exhibitions of various Visual AIDS Archive Project members, and not just on Day With[out] Art but year round. And through it all, there are the photographs. Like a private moment in a public space, the image of 59 for All Pain sometimes lingers on with me for days. Holding this image is an active experience. It is one of the things art can do, and particularly in Frank Jump’s hands, as he does it so lovingly and so well.

Amy Sadao
Executive Director, Visual AIDS
August 1, 2011, New York

Visual AIDS: ReMixed Messages – Washington DC

Jul 10th, 2012

by fadingad.

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Visual AIDS & Transformer proudly present:

ReMixed Messages

Hosted by
Fathom Gallery
1333 14th Street NW, Washington DC 20005

July 24 – August 4, 2012
OPENING RECEPTION: Tuesday, July 24, 7-9 pm
Curator’s Talk at 6:30pm • Sponsored by Accordia Global Health Foundation

CLOSING RECEPTION: Thursday, August 2, 6-8 pm
Artist’s Talk with Tim Tate at 6:30pm • Sponsored by the Logan Circle Community Association

ReMixed Messages, an exhibition of over thirty text-based works reflecting reactions to and connections through HIV/AIDS across generations, curated by John Chaich. Including multimedia works by:

Robert Blanchon • Paul Chisholm • Cammi Climaco • Amanda Curreri • Craig Damrauer • Joe De Hoyos • Chloe Dzubilo • John Giorno • Felix Gonzalez-Torres • Nolan Hendrickson • Linda Hesh • Lisa Iglesias • James Jaxxa • Frank H. Jump • Jayson Keeling • Larry Krone • Sam McKinniss • Maggie Michael • Ivan Monforte • J. Morrison • Nightsweats & T-cells • Yoko Ono • Jack Pierson • Hunter Reynolds • Kay Rosen • Tim Tate • Charlie Welch • David Wojnarowicz • Rob Wynne

First presented as Mixed Messages at La MaMa La Galleria, New York City in 2011, this DC exhibition co-produced by Visual AIDS and Transformer is remixed for the International AIDS Conference 2012. Catalogue available.

EXHIBITION HOURS at Fathom Gallery:
Tuesday, July 24 – Friday, July 27, 2-6 pm
Saturday, July 28, 12-6 pm
Tuesday, July 31 – Saturday, August 4, 11-3 pm

CLICK FOR PDF OF CATALOGUE

VAVA-VOOM! Visual AIDS Vanguard Awards 2012 – Angel Orensanz Foundation – LES

May 16th, 2012

by fadingad.

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Visual AIDS 2012 VAVA-VOOM Award Recipients Frank H. Jump, Wendy Olsoff, Penny Pilkington & Sean Strub © Marlena Elisa Photography

A SUCCESS! May 14, 2012 – VAVA VOOM!

May 15th, 2012

by fadingad.

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VAVA VOOM • Thank You!

VAVA VOOM was a wonderful success, and we couldn’t have done it without YOU!
It was a fun night filled with friends, love and support.

Thank you to our honorees, Frank Jump, Wendy Olsoff, Penny Pilkington and Sean Strub; and the presenters Rosario Dawson, Edwin Bernard, and Martha Wilson.

Thank you to our performers Joey Arias & Daniel Isengart and host John Fugelsang.

And most of all, the Visual AIDS staff and board Thank YOU! It’s an honor to call so many dedicated, generous and fabulous individuals our friends.

Sincerely,
Amy Sadao, Executive Director
Nelson Santos, Associate Director

Visit Facebook for more pictures, courtesy of Steven Rosen Photography.

VAVAVOOM! The Seventh Annual Visual AIDS Vanguard Awards — Monday — May 14, 2012 • 6:00 – 9:00 PM

Apr 19th, 2012

by fadingad.

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VAVA VOOM • A Night of Cabaret
VISUAL AIDS SPRING BENEFIT
Monday May 14, 2012 • 6:00 – 9:00 PM

Honoring
Frank Jump presented by Rosario Dawson
Wendy Olsoff & Penny Pilkington presented by Martha Wilson
Sean Strub presented by Urvashi Vaid

Performances by Joey Arias and Daniel Isengart
Hosted by John Fugelsang

Silent Art Auction
Dotty Attie, Frank Jump, Wilson Hand Kidde, Annette Lemieux, Duane Michals, Hunter Reynolds, Eric Rhein, Thomas Ruff, Steed Taylor, Spencer Tunick, James Welling, Thomas Woodruff, and Lynne Yamamoto.

Raffle Prizes
Hotel Fauchère Relais & Chateaux
HUGO BOSS
Oliver Peoples, Paul Smith & Mosley Tribes Sunglasses
New York Health and Racquet Club

Tickets
Individual Tickets: $275 – $500
Tables: $3,000 – $5,000
Proceeds support Visual AIDS’ work utilizing art to provoke dialogue about HIV, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy because AIDS is not over.

Purchase tickets online

Or by phone, contact Amy Sadao at (212) 627-9855